Battle Royale
by Nightheart
Summary: Free-spirited, independent, adventurous Rikku sees no reason to settle down like her father wants. Gippal would have better luck trying to pin down a sun-beam than get her to look his way. Could Cid's plan be the answer he's looking for?
1. Chapter 1

"Besaid huh?" Gippal commented, giving a small grunt of effort as he lifted the block into place. "And have DH-4 bolt in the left side Korrik..." There was a whirring noise as the machina drone did as he was commanded.

"That's what Tanu says, and she has it from Lorriha who knows a weaver-girl who lives there," confirmed Hakki. "She's visiting her cousin and those old Guardian friends of her's I'd imagine."

It was hard to be heard over the din and clangor of an average day and Djose temple, but the Al Bhed who lived there managed fine. Their people had been gossiping about one another over the foror of engine and machina noises for centuries, and with the New Home Project well under way could apparently look forward to many more centuries of doing the same.

"Do you think she knows what her old man's up to in Bikanel?" he wondered aloud as he manually tightened the bolts on the right side.

"Hard to say," Korrik said. "I know that Brother is one wrench shy of a set, but those two have been thick as theives since they were little. Anything he knows about, Rikku will know about too before long."

"Which begs the question," chimed in Challa. "Of whether or not Brother knows about it."

"I haven't heard of the Celsius pulling into dock out there In bikanel Island," Korrik said.

"And you know how well our esteemed fearless leader and his crazy son get along... which is to say not at all. No, I think it's pretty safe to say that Bikanel is one place that the Celsius and its crew are not," Challa agreed. "And speaking of airships, have you seen Rikku's? It's finally finished!"

"No kiddin'" Gippal said, off-handedly. "Took her long enough."

"Now now," Challa chided. "You know that it was just her working on it."

"She could have taken me up on my generous offer to help her," Gippal argued, grinning at an in joke.

"I would hardly call demanding controlling rights on half of the profits made from her and her airship for the first year a generous offer of assistance."

"It was generous," Gippal maintained. "Not only would she have gotten her little airship built in half the time but I promised to go half in on the cost of any repairs made in the time she'd be payin' me back."

"Hmmm, fifty-one percent of the profits made by a former Guardian and professional adventuress over the course of the year. Lessee, how much did she make in a year as a Gullwing? Over one million gil I think it was, even after deductions for maintenence..." Korrik, said with feighned casuality.

"So basically... you'd still profit," Challa said, reprovingly to Gippal. "Geeze, no wonder she dropped you like mouldy bread."

"Urhhk," Gippal gasped before he was able to stop himself. She'd hit the nail on the head and it stabbed through him like only a painful truth spoken with off-handed plainness could.

"I wouldn't say so much dropped--" he started.

"Oh, I would," Korrik quickly concured with his lifemate, Challa.

"And really can you blame her?" Challa said, with a sly wink at her husband. "Working so hard day and night to build a machina with her own hands, only to be pestered every other hour by the importunings of someone she clearly has no interest in but who cannot seem to take a hint."

"Oh, yes indeed," Korrik said, nodding in apparent sympathy. "Our poor sweet Rikku, left to bear with fortitude the fawning advances of a rough-handed profiteer."

"I am not a profiteer!" Gippal protested. Challa went on as if she hadn't heard him.

"And forced to watch everyday as a parade, no, a veritable festival of women walk by all chosen by him while she gets left alone and lonely in the dark to work on her ship. The only friend she has..."

Gippal was frowning, knowing full well that the young lifemated pair were teasing him. Well what would they know? They already had each other.

"I've heard that the women here at Djose have considered installing a revolving door on your quarters for convenience," Challa said.

"That's going a little far now," Gippal said lightly, a slight warning edge in his tone. Sure Challa and Korrin were his friends but he was only willing to take so much teasing from his employees.

"That's alright," Challa said with her sickly-sweet mocking smile that really held a sword in it. "I'm sure she never noticed anyway."

This time Gippal managed to restrain the gasp as she hit another nail on the head. Carelees, flighty, fun-loving Rikku never seemed to give an old rusty bolt for anything he had to say to her... especially when it concerned her status as a single, lonely young woman.

"Why would I care what that skinny twerp thinks anyway?" he said, shrugging and assuming one of his lady killer poses, the one that never failed to make a woman melt. "After all, I have women lined up around the block."

"That's funny you should say that," Korrik said, fully intending to burst his bubble. "So does she. The last estimates from Bikanel for Leader Cid's little pet project said that there were at least fifty who had expressed an interest in taking a crack at it."

"Wow! Fifty you say?" Challa said, poking Gippal on the arm. "Sounds like quite the competiton."

"Hand me that cord there," was all Gippal said.

"Here you go," Challa said, as she and her husband rose to leave.

"We're for breaks Gippal, you gonna stay here?"

"Yeah, I'll finish; you two lovebirds can go back to your nest," he said waving absently, by all appearences absorbed in his work. He heard the door slam shut behind them with a sigh of relief. Alone at last. He slid out from under the mounted engine block and wiped the grease off his hands then stretched out muscled cramped up from spending hours on a rolling board under a machina.

He liked his friends, but they had a bit too much of a propensity for locking on to his weak points and giving him a hard time about them. His status as Leader of the Machine Faction had given him a lot of recognition and renown among thier people; this had resulted in him being in high demand as a potential lafemate... so far none of them had taken. Rikku was the only one who'd rejected him and the manner in which she had done so still made his ego wince every time he thught about it.

*

"Be my girl," he said, casually slinging an arm around her shoulders and pulling her close to him as they walked over the bridges spanning the Moonflow. Rikku was on her way out to the cleared area where her partially-constructed airship lay in peices, waiting to be put together. He flashed one of his best lady-killer smiles at her, the one that always made women melt.

"Oh, no thank-you," she said with absent-minded vagueness, her thoughts clearly elsewhere. Gippal blinked, a little taken aback. That had been a fast answer, she hadn't even paused to consider it. It was like she'd been turning down a polite offer for a drink or something.

"Why not?" he asked trying to sound curious rather than offended. He did after all have a large number of women flinging themselves at him, he didn't see why Rikku would turn down his offer for her... was it just because she was famous?

"Why not what?" she asked, sounding a little irritated at having her train of thought interrupted.

"That was a serious offer from me," he pointed out.

"You? Serious? Pffft! That's funny Gippal!" she said cheerfully, smiling her happy-Rikku smile at him. "Tell me another one!"

"I was serious," he maintained. "I want you to be my lover."

"Naaahhh," she said, batting a hand disarmingly at him. "I'm busy right now."

With that she'd turned down the path to her airship, and by all appearances completely forgotten Gippal and his offer. The Leader of the Machine Faction however, was a little more stubborn than that, and he was not willing to take not interested for an answer. Of course she was interested in him, all she needed was a little softening up first.

So he tried later that night, after hours when the temple was deserted and it was just Him, Rikku's little airship, and Rikku.  
Rikku hung upside down from one of the struts holding a massive component of the left-side thruster in place working on the wiring, the surface pnels discarded on the floor nearby. Her long blonde hair the exact shade of the sandunes of Bikanel when the sun kissed them fell in a long beaded curtain from the nape of her neck, flicking this way and that with every slight movement of her head. All was quiet in the workroom, the workers had all left for thier homes hours ago. It was just the two of them.

Gippal leaned casually against an exposed panel next to her, deliberately invading her space and crossing his arms in front of him knowing that he showed to best advantage like this.

"Up late are we?" he asked, pitching his tone loud enough to spook her (he'd made certain to come in silently). It was easiest to gain an advantage if the girl was already caught off-guard. Rikku gave no sign of surprise, just turned her head (upside down) to look at him.

"I just wanted to finish this," she said cheerfully, turning back to her work.

"I could help," he offered.

"No strings attached?" she countered.

"All I'd need in return is a little thank-you kiss," he said, pouring on the charm. It was hard to look debonair from this angle but he felt he managed admirably. Rikku abruptly flipped onto her feet and poked him on the forehead with her finger, smearing engine grease on him.

"No thanks," she sing-songed, dancing out of his reach to fetch a wrench from the nearby crescent set laid out. He wiped off the grease.

"It's okay if you're shy, I understand," he said, easily keeping pace with her. He leaned forward and whispered "I'll be gentle."

She looked up at him in surprise, obviously catching the double entendre. When she blushed in embarrasment, he knew he had her. Her eyes were wide and doe-like, radiating her innoscence as she backed up against the toolchest, trying to put more distance between them.

"C-c'mon Gippal, cut it out," she said, smiling nervously and very obviously trying to regain her composure. He wasn't willing to let her right then. Gippal leaned forward putting an arm on either side of her, ostensibly to lean against the toolchest but really trapping her in place close to him. She grew even more unnerved... this told him that Rikku was an innoscent. It was kind of a turn-on.

"Cut what out?" he asked innocently, toying with her a little before going for the kill.

"The romeo act," she said disparagingly at him. "You should know I'm immune to it. I'm Rikku." This before turning around abruptly and flicking her long blode tail into his face. He got an impression of silk and sting before she spun easily out of his reach. He'd forgotten how very quick she was.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he claimed, pulling out the wrench she'd been looking for. "I was just helping you find this."

"Thank-you," she said, carefully taking the wrench from him while warily watching him with suspicious eyes. She turned away to go back to her engine and he followed her.

He didn't do anything, not just yet. He watched her, unnerving her. She really did have a trim little figure, he liked how her little theif dress-dodad exposed so much of her flat, toned tummy. She definately had a figure worth admiring. She wasn't a scrawney, skinney little brat anymore and he very much appreciated the change. In the year of the Final Pilgrimage, Rikku ad just been another scrawney Al Bhed kid. True, she was the leaders daughter, but her only mark of distinction in his mind at the time had been the fact that she was Brother's little sister, and Brother was his best friend. Still, she was a year and a half younger than him, so despite this tie they really didn't travel in the same circles. Gippal was already apprenticed to his father, working with the Crusaders to develop weapons for opperation Mi'ihen.

"What?" she demanded in exasperation after a minute or two of him just standing there staring at her.

"What what?" he replied, all innoscence. Truth to tell, part of him had been lost in reverie. At that moment on that night he thought he'd never seen anything so beautiful. She was free, truly free, like a wild thing was free. She was wild and beautiful and indomitable... and forever out of his reach.

"You're just standing there staring at me," she said. "You're starting to creep me out."

"You're imagining things," he claimed. "I'm just standing here."

"Well go stand someplace else," she said, growing irritated as a sheild to hide how nervous Gippal knew he was making her.

"Alright," he said agreeably. He very deliberately walked over to where she was standing wrestling with a nut rusted onto the the shaft of a screw so that she could loosten the panelling of the next section and got right behind her, his skin just inches from hers. He traced a finger tip lightly up her back, making her shiver as goosepimples puckered her flesh.

"Ahhg, don't do that!" she exclaimed, batting his hand away and trying to shoo him off.

"You had a smear of grease," he said. She gave him a suspicious look but let it slide.

"I can wash it off myself thank-you," she said, her voice sounding a little strained. "In fact, I'm mostly done here so I'll just go back to my quarters, wash up and go to bed. So if you don't m--"

She'd been speaking fast, to the point of babbling and she'd abruptly turned around, intending to break for the door when she found herself walking straight into his chest. Gippal wasn't actually caught off guard when she ran into him, but he fell back anyway, taking her with him. They wound up sprawled out on the floor, precisely as he'd intended, with Rikku staddling his hips and looking like a deer caught in on-coming hover-lights.

"Baby, if all you wanted was to be on top..." he said, grinning lazily up at her while he slid a hand slowly up her smooth tanned thigh over her very firm buttocks to rest casually at the small of her back.

"Eeep!" She actually squeaked. How cute. And it made him feel like such a predator. He liked it.

"Um, look," she said plucking his hand from where it rested at the small of her back. "I don't know where you got the idea that I... um, well, that is... er... don't you have anything else better to do?"

"Nope. I'm all yours," he promised her. He let his tone and face speak the true meaning of his words.

Rikku seemed to suddenly catch hold of her floundring composure for where there had been a girl, uncertain and panicking, there was suddenly a woman, come-hither and sexy as hell. Could there be two Rikku's? Gippal didn't think that the world could handle two Rikku's. One was more than enough.

"Hmmm..." she said, looking him up and down with the air of an appraiser looking for some used machina to buy. She smiled, slowly and sensually at him and he felt a rush of heat wast right through him like a wave crashing. She brought her hands up from and smoothed them over his torso. Deliberate and seductive.

Heh, success! All she'd needed was a little nudge from him, and she was putty in his hands.

"Nope," she said, in her usual innoscent and cheerful tones pushing off his chest then ducking and rolling off from him faster than he could even blink.

"Sorry, not interested," she added casually. "Now hand me that wrench over there so I can get started here."

With that, Rikku turned back to her precious project, all thoughts of him and his attempted seduction of her apparently forgotten.

*

He sighed a little, perhaps with regret. Gippal knew better than to attempt any seduction ploy more forceful than that; first off she was Cid's little girl, Cid's ONLY little girl, and he'd heard the rumors about the man's gun collection. Second, Rikku herself was a former Guardian, one that had faced and helped to defeat Sin, not to mention all of the other feinds and monsters they'd had to face along the way to get to Sin. If he did anything she'd find objectionable she'd probably have more than enough strength the serve his genitals to him on a platter. No if she didn't respond to coaxing he wasn't going to risk her possibly formidable wrath with anything less gentle than that.

I didn't even get a lousy kiss before she left, he grumbled to himself. 


	2. Princess

She sighed with contentment and wriggled her toes deeper into the sands.

_Ahh, such a nice day_.

Days like this were meant to be enjoyed. The sky was pure azure without a single cloud in it, the breeze rustling through the numerour palm trees on the tropical island of Besaid was just on the warm side of cool, and the sun, oh the sun! She loved it, it was cheerful and yellow and warm and wonderful, and it soaked into her bare skin, enveloping her in heat like a great warm invisible blanket. She lay out on the beach like a lizard on a rock, with as much skin exposed to the radiant warm light as she could decently get away with and wriggled into the heat radiating from the sands. Such a _nice _day. She was free to indulge in the lethargic, sleepy feeling that basking in the warm sunshine brought her, and bask she did.

_So peaceful here_, she thought sleepily.

The wind rustled the palm trees with its soothing sursuration and the steady shushing noise of the waves pulling in and out along the shore made her feel even more sleepy. She'd spent the morning skin-diving in the coral reefs around the island, taking out minor feinds, finding minor treasures and sinking into the strange blue world beneath the waves. An active morning of feind-hunting and treasure finding deserved to be followed by a leisurely afternoon soak, just enjoying the day, right? After all, she'd been working hard up until this point to get her own personal airship fixed up.

A little over a year ago, she and Brother had had a bit of a disagreement as to what the future of the Gullwings should be after the original troop had disbanded. Rikku hadn't liked those two new girls he'd found to replace Paine and Yunie... there was no _replacing _Paine and Yunie! So she and Brother had gotten into one of their usual sibling squabbles about it and he'd tried to pull rank on her as the "older sibling" and said that if she didn't like it she could just find her own air ship. So Rikku, being the proud and independent sort, had said "fine, I will!" and walked off to do just that.

She knew that she could easily just beg her father to find the parts for her, but she'd immediately rejected the idea. _No way!_ No _way _was she going to let her old man hold that over her head for the rest of her natural life! Rikku wanted to do this on her own, without her family or anyone else intruding in on it. This project was _her _baby.

She could also have simply paid Gippal, as the Leader of the Machine Faction, to simply _give _her the parts from where his Machine Faction had them stored, but then he'd inevitably want to know what the parts were for and at the time she would have just as soon kept him out of her business.

_It seems a little odd now_, she thought, smiling a little at her former self.

She'd been so determined to do _everything _herself, and now it just seemed a little _silly _looking back on it. She'd only been making things more difficult. In the end she'd joined Nhadala out on the sands to dig up some of her parts, paid Gippal for some from the money she made part-time feind-hunting, and went through a few of her connections among the Al Bhed for some of the others. Brother's opinion of him notwithstanding, Gippal wasn't such a bad guy. A bit of a playboy, but that was just the nature of the Al Bhed young man; if she ignored his insincere attempts at flattery and that charm he oozed from every pore she could work pretty well with him.

_If only he weren't **so**_... She left the thought unfinished. Even after having spent a number of weeks working around him, Rikku honestly wasn't certain what she was supposed to make of him.

He had a lot of charisma, people were drawn to him... Rikku included. She might have been caught of guard by his natural magnetism and perhaps even (Ancestors forbid) actually have _fallen _for him, but Rikku had seen, and knew, enough of the world to be just a little wary of charismatic men. Seymore had been very charismatic men. It wasn't that she thought Gippal was likely to ever turn into a crazed lunatic bent on destroying the world that **just wouldn't die**, but she also didn't want to fall prey to him either.

Rikku had gone to great lengths to gain her independence and she wasn't ready to give it up just yet... especially not to someone like _him_. It wasn't just her independence she worried about, getting involved with Gippal could put her heart in jeopardy as well. So Rikku had decided to cheerfully consign him to the category "and old friend of her brother, a little annoying but alright" and very conscientiously didn't let her thoughts stray into dangerous territory. She had plans for her future, plans that included adventure and exploring... and hopefully a nice little epic romance. And nowhere featured in any of those plans was being Gippal's _girl-toy_ thankyouverymuch.

Things had been getting more out of hand the longer she'd spent around him; her heart tripping a beat each time he'd looked her way, her belly feeling like it was stuffed full of butterflies from Macalania Woods every time he'd actually brushed against her, her face heating up at every one of his usual flirty comments. She knew he didn't mean anything by them but she couldn't seem to stop herself from thinking about them at odd hours when she was alone working or trying to go to sleep.

_That wouldn't have been a problem if I'd just stayed in Bikanel_, she grumbled to herself.

When she'd first found the engine core of what would become her eventual airship, waaaay out in the unexplored feind-infested wastes near the old Omega Ruins, she'd gotten it towed back (for a small fee) to Bikanel Island where she'd started cleaning it out. Nearly all of what was left of the hull and most of the wiring had been a lost cause, but the engine had been mostly intact, but she'd found it in the middle of a swamp. Unlike finding ancient artifacts in the middle of the desert where all an Al Bhed had to do was brush off the sand and blow out the dust, the engine core and parts of her eventual new airship were filled with smelly water, muck weeds and corroded in many places. She'd had a lot of work ahead of her. Since she'd spent most of her small savings finding he engine and getting it back to Bikanel, Rikku had reluctantly taken her father up on his offer to move back home with him and use his shop while she worked on fixing her airship.

But that place carried its _own _hassles and her mind insisted on being honest with her and reminding her why it was that she'd left the Home Sands in the first place.

At first the situation had been okay, not great, but okay. That didn't last long. Rikku had decided to save a little extra money by staying at her father's home instead of paying rent on her own place (and she'd never admit it a out loud but she worried about the old man living alone).

It wasn't long before her father started making... hints. Hints that she should give up all that adventuring and sphere-hunting nonsense and settle at Home. Oh, he'd _thought _he was being subtle, but Cid was naturally a very blunt character, and was in actuality possessed of all of the tact and subtlety of a rampaging machina. It wasn't long before Rikku was ready to drop her old man down the nearest well and bolt down the cover so she wouldn't have to listen to his "It ain't right fer young unmarried girls ta run around doin' crazy things" speech. Then... _then _there had come a sudden influx of young men "just dropping by to check on her." They'd asked if she'd needed any help, extra parts, extra tools and if she was hungry they'd be _more _than happy to take her out to dinner. Coincidentally enough, they'd all been assigned to work for her father at one point or another. Apparently her dear, beloved father was investigating a second career as a yenta.

It hadn't been long before Rikku had been ready to tap into the city power so that she could post an electric fence and a neon sign that said "not interested" on it.

She remembered well the last argument she'd gotten into with her pops the last time she'd been on the Home Sands before she'd gotten fed up with his "subtle" hinting and left for good to finish fixing up her airship elsewhere.

_..._

_"Rikuuuu! Front and center!" he bellowed out premtorily through the courtyard of the training-court where she'd been spending her morning exsersizing herself against a few of the training machina built and put there for that purpose. It was important for her to keep her skills sharp after all._

_The machina hadn't been giving her much of a challenge at all, she hadn't even broken a sweat._

_"What's up pops?" she asked curiously after she'd casually dispatched the five of them she'd been facing with three steals and a bomb-mixer._

_"It does my ol' heart proud ta see ya taking initiative and building yerself a fine machina like a proper Al Bhed girl," he said gruffly. "But it still ain't right fer ya ta be runnin' all over Spira by yerself with no-one ta lookout fer ya."_

_"Pops, we've talked about this before," she grumbled, already tired of the discussion. "I'm **fine **on my own. Besides, I'll still be spending a lot of time visiting with my friends so I won't be completely alone, y'know?"_

_What she hadn't told him was that she had no intention of being "on her own" for very long. She, of course, wanted someone to explore with and share her adventures with. And if that someone happened to be a handsome, dangerous, charismatic adventurer... well, so much the better. Rikku didn't like being alone and she had every intention of finding herself someone exciting to share her life of excitement with, someone who would understand when she said "this place is getting old, let's go somewhere else" and wouldn't mind if they uprooted and flew somewhere else just for the fun of it._

_If only her father wouldn't push her so hard... if he'd just back off, give her some space and let her find her own way... She was sure she'd find someone who was right for her._

_"But-" he'd said, winding himself up for his usual long-winded debate. Rikku cut him off._

_"Look, I'm a grown woman and I have been for years, pops," she said firmly, looking him straight in the eye to tell him she meant business. "I've made up my mind."_

_"Now you see here missie," he said, puffing his chest out and crossing his arms. He was going to get bull-headed about this. "Yer still m'daughter! It don't matter if you've built yerself one new airship or a hunerd of 'em."_

_"Urrrg!" she growled, throwing her towel to the ground and getting prepared to stomp off to that airship and put some space between her and her overbearing old man. Abruptly his tone, for once, turned concilliatory._

_"Now look, Rikku," he said his tone was gruff and premtory but there was a trace of vulnerability there that made Rikku a little bit willing to at least stay there and hear him out. "I'm not askin' that ya get hitched right away, I just want ya ta... y'know, at least **think** about it."_

_"Think about it?" she said skeptically. "That's all you want me to do?"_

_"An' well, maybe take one or two lovers... just ta if they'll **take**," he added hurriedly._

_Yuna would certainly have been surprised and dismayed to hear someone, even family, speak so casually of taking a lover but it wasn't such a big deal among thier people._

_The Al Bhed had a reputation among the Yevonites as being promiscuious hedonists, and to a degree it was true just not quite in the manner that most Yevonites thought. When a people were forced to try to eke out a living in the harsh and unforgiving desert sands, they tended to be practical about what it took to survive and keep the people going for the next generation. Life in Bikanel Island was harsh, even with the help of the machina. This fact had made the Al Bhed, as a whole, a practical sort of people; they went with what worked in everything from governments to relationships. In the young Al Bhed, the ones just starting out in thier lives trying to make a name for themselves, there wasn't a whole lot of call for a serious settled commitment. They generally "enjoyed one anothers company" in the hopes that sooner or later they'd find a match that would fit. To be fair, once a permanent match was found, there was no going back among thier people... Al Bhed married for life._

_"I knew it," she muttered. The old man just was not going to let this one go. As she looked down at the practice claw she was using, she abrptly got an idea._

_"I'll tell you what pops," she said, smiling brightly. "I can see that you're set on me having a good husband, but if I'm going to be out exploring and building machina like a proper Al Bhed-"_

_**Boy am I ever laying it on thick**, she thought with an inward chuckle._

_"I'm going to need a husband I can trust to watch my back in battle. That means that he'll have to be as good a fighter as me," she said reasonably, making it sound like she was making a great concession in a compromise._

_"I'm listenin'," he said, sounding interested and hopeful._

_"I'll tell you what," she said. "If he defeats me in a fair, open-handed combat match... he can have me."_

_Rikku was well atuned to her fathers moods, she knew that under that gruff, blunt hillbilly exterior there was a surprisingly sharp mind that had always (from as far back as little Rikku could remember) taken the table at any deal he'd ever made. She'd fogetten this in recent years, having lived with Brother for so long had dulled her wariness of the old mans wits. So she'd missed the sudden sharpening of his gaze as he all but pounced on the steak she'd just tossed out to him._

_"A fair match," he'd said oh-so-casually. "Can I have yer word on that? He beats ya in a fair match an' you'll marry 'im?"_

_"Fine, fine, my word as an Al Bhed," she said impatiently. "But it has to be a fair match."_

_"That's fine, but none o' yer fancy-schmancy desspheres. Ya fight with the wits and skills ya got, er nuthin'! I didn't raise ma little girl ta go relyin' on any new-fangled gizmos ta do her fightin' for her!"_

_Rikku, already bored with the discussion, refrained from saying that it wasn't the dress that did the fighting, but the fighter wearing it._

_"Yeah, yeah... whatever," she said, stretching. "I'm off to Mushroom Rock tomorrow to start work, I won't be back for a while so stay out of trouble until then."_

_"Eh, right," her old man said, with an air of distraction. Rikku hadn't known it then, but he'd been plotting something_.

She loved her father in her way, she just couldn't live with him. That was precisely the reason why she'd been happy to live with Brother, Buddy and Shinra on thier airship. The old man hadn't exactly paid a whole lot of attention to her and Brother growing up and Rikku, the other Al Bhed at Home had practically raised them and they'd just wandered around doing whatever they wanted without anyone to tell them no. She just couldn't get why he was trying so hard to butt into her life now that she was all grown up. Yunie and Khimari, even Wakka had tried to explain it to her but she still didn't get it.

"I don't get it," she'd complained to Yunie when she'd flown off to Besaid for a short visit to get away from all the importunings in her home sands. "He didn't pay any attention to Brother and me when we were growing up, why does he want to play father of the year now?" Now when she didn't need him.

Yunie had tried to explain. "Uncle Cid is just feeling the loss of both of his baby birds leaving the nest, so when his perigrinating babies come home he's twice as protective to make up for it."

Wakka had used some weird Blitzball anylogy. "Most of the other dads with daughters your age still let them in the Blitz to play a few rounds, but you've had him on the bench for years, ya, and he seems to think he's lost his chance at the world cup...ya?"

In the end Rikku had decided that the whole island of Bikanel wasn't big enough for the both of them and had transported her 1/3 finished airship and engine to Djose temple where she rented out a room at an exhorbitant price from Gippal (and rejected his joking offer to share his with her for free) so that she could work on her airship in peace. She'd gotten most of it finished despite the interruptions; Gippal had kept trying to "help" her. He'd been constantly coming over to where she'd been working, offering unasked-for and unneccessary advice which she'd promptly ignored. (It had been particularly irritating for her to discover later that he was right most of the time).

If he wasn't actually trying to help her, he liked finding new ways to annoy her; tugging on her braids, or holding her tools just out of her reach and making her ask for them (or, more often than not, threaten to use them to perform several uncomfortable manuvers on his person that he was certain _not _to enjoy). His favorite pass-time seemed to be making off with her stuff and hiding them somewhere in his rooms. She'd become quite adept at sneaking into his quarters at odd hours when she knew he wasn't there and searching his stuff to find where he'd squirreled her belongings away _this _time. She was a master theif after all. All of the other girls got flowers, candy and flattery, Rikku got childish pranks.

She'd thought of him as a friend, but Gippal, apparently, was still Gippal; and he couldn't see a single, unattached and not entirely uncute Al Bhed woman without having the urge to flirt with her. Even though Rikku had thought she fit into the category of "little sister" to him (due to his former friendship with her brother) this didn't appear to be the case. She'd been at Djose temple for maybe a month, observing with hidden amusement and partial awe as a long chain of "one week wonders" blinked in and out of his life, when one day he suddenly turned his attentions to _her_. It had been completely unexpected (and Rikku had been at a very important stage in constructing her airship right at that point) so she'd turned him down.

_Of course he couldn't have been serious_, she had reasoned while she'd tightened the bolts holding the new engine component in place later that day after the unexpected come-on.

Gippal was never serious. Especially not with Rikku. Rikku was the amusement, the morale booster, the _clown _"always good for a laugh" and she worked hard at it, she was not the love interest, and especially not to _him_. Part of her whistfully thought that she wouldn't mind being his love interest but she squelched it firmly; Rikku was the indomitable, independent princess of the Al Bhed, and _as _the indomitable and independent princess of the Al Bhed she could not, by definition, _ever _be just another of Gippals Girls. Rikku had no desire to be anyone's one-week wonder. She'd stand out more in his mind if she was the one that got away. She didn't consider herself to be overly conceited, but Rikku _did _have her pride and she knew it would never tolerate being just another of his one week wonders. That was what she told herself anyway, deep down she knew the truth... it wasn't _only _her pride that would be hurt by him.

So she'd "tested the engine out" one day, once the ship was about thee quarters finished, and simply never went back to Djose. She'd sent Gippal a message over the comsphere later that evening, informing him that she'd be staying on Besaid and finishing her work there where she could be with her friends and family. He'd grinned a little, waved casually, and wished her luck.

_So **there**, he didn't actually like me_, she salved her conscience over her deliberate capriciousness.

He didn't try to get her to come back or even question why she'd felt the urge to suddenly pack up and leave, that _proved _that he had just been acting as his usual playboy self when he'd been flirting with her. So she was under no obligations to think that she might have hurt his feelings by leaving so suddenly.

_No harm done_, she assured herself. _He just can't see a cute girl in a skirt without trying to win her over for himself. That's just the way he is. He doesn't have a father breathing down his neck to get hitched_. That was fine, Rikku had more than earned her independence and she was going to enjoy it.

She'd been on her own for about three months by now, and was finding that it was something of a mixed blessing. The adventuring was fun but in between adventures she found that she got pretty lonely on her airship by herself.

True, Rikku wasn't doing so badly money-wise; she'd made back almost every gil that'd she'd spent to build her airship! Thanks to the Hunt Club hosted jointly by Nooj and Baralai; mostly it was Nooj, unsurprisingly, that sort of thing was right up the alley of the former Crusaders and a new university that had opened itself up (at Baralai's instigation) in the city of Bevelle. The Hunt Club was sort of like the creature shop in the Clam Lands (where Claskos hocobo ranch now resided) during the Pilgrimage. And as for the university... thier mission? Explore the workings of the feinds. There were scholors and professors and black and white mages, even a couple of alchemists in this strange group and they all were willing to pay top gil for... parts. Some of the stuff on the list were really weird; courl whiskers, behemoth horns, flan goo... but those guys swore up and down that they were finding new uses for the stuff every day. One black Mage told her that a compound using the couerl whisker she'd brough him (that he'd paid 1300 gil for!) and some other stuff incresed the effectiveness of a black magic spell cast by ten percent.

She was independently wealthy and had all the exploration she could handle... but nothin' in the romance department.

_What am I doing wrong_? she wondered, looking herself up and down in the full-length mirror in her sleeping room on the airship as she changed out of her swimsuit. She had a cute, trim little figure, curves in all of the right places; and Rikku knew darned well that she showed each and every one of them off to advantage. Her body was toned but not overly muscular. Was it her chest? Or maybe it was her thighs... Nah, she was perfectly well proportioned for her size, she should be attracting admiring gazes wherever she went!

_The bait's on the hook darn it, why am I not getting a nibble?_

She so wanted a nibble!

Gippal didn't count. He wasn't serious. Besides that, he was stuck with his Machine Faction; he couldn't just leave and go adventuring with her. So far, he was the only nibble she'd gotten, but Rikku wanted a fish she could land and Gippal was notorious for always being the one that got away. It had been very difficult for her to feign disinterest when all she'd really wanted to do was go back to his quarters and let him have his way with her.

_Maybe its my butt_, she thought turning to the side. But she had a cute butt.

_I don't get it_, she thought.

The men her father sent to her for her to try out aside, there should have been at least _some _expressions of interest. They didn't have to be Al Bhed, she'd take a Yevonite if he was open-minded, adventurous and handsome. Sure, she'd preffer and Al Bhed because of the cultural similarities (Yevonites could be hard to understand sometimes and many of them were extremely prudish) but she thought that there were Yevonites out there that were looked mighty tasty to her. Baralai was definitely a case in point, but he belonged to Paine (whether either of them knew it or not) so that pretty much put paid to that idea. Heck, she'd even had a crush on Auron (of all people) at one time so she could deffinitely go for a Yevonite... even a grouchy one.

_I'm not asking for an epic, world-shattering romance here_, Rikku thought to herself.

She'd seen her cousin Yuna go through one of those and they were just a little too high-maintenence for her. Too much heartache and sorrow to go with the good times. Sure, life wasn't always sunshine and festivals, but Rikku's optimistic nature told her that it should be MOSTLY sunshine and romance.

She wouldn't mind being courted a little, provided the potential lifemate could do his courting on the road. Ancestors, she _wanted _a nice, romantic courtship! She could kinda picture it in her head...

She's fighting a really tough fiend one day (and the fiends had gotten a lot tougher now that she was on her own) and just as she's on to ropes with one shot left in her, he swoops in and kills off the fiend, looking dashing and and charming. Oh, and he's really handsome too, and he scoops her up and carries her off to the side where he gives her a potion to help revive her. He notes that she's a really tough fighter but says that some fiends are too dangerous to take on by yourself... since he's not traveling with anyone either, how about they travel together? He says that a girl as beautiful as her doesn't deserve to travel all alone.

Rikku sighed a little, dreamily. With every day they spent together they found more and more things they liked about each other. He'd bring her flowers he picked himself while they were in the Calm Lands and tell her that they weren't half as lovely as she was. They'd fight feinds together and after every really tough one he'd look deep into her eyes and ask her if she was alright, and say he wouldn't know what he'd do if he'd lost her. And then one day, he takes her to a secret spot that they've found for just the two of them; maybe somewhere in Bikanel, maybe in the Calm Lands, maybe in some cave hidden away from the world, and he confesses that he loves her and can't imagine living another day without her in it. They get married; her father as Leader of the Al Bhed, would have to perform the ceremony. And Yunie is there as her Second... and all of her Guardian friends of course. And Brother and Buddy and Shinra. And Paine too, even wearing a dress.

_Heh. That's definately building the hull before the engine core_, she thought, deprecatingly at herself with a little laugh. She was already picturing her wedding and she hadn't even met the _groom _yet.

_And as of right now, I haven't got either hull or engine core... metaphorically speaking._

Still, it couldn't hurt to dream a little, right?

* * *

**There it is, chapter two. Poor Rikku, the bait's on the hook but the only fish biting is a notorious womanizer. It must be frustrating. Stay tuned to read how the story unfolds. Well, please be kind and leave a review.**


	3. About a Girl

A month ago they'd all gathered together to attend Khimari's lifemating ceremony to Kaekla, the Ronso woman who had liked to give him backrubs. Khimari admitted (when pressed by Yuna) that they intended to have pups right away. Of course they'd all been happy for him, Khimari deserved it. She'd felt downright nostalgic at having all of the old gang together... all except one; Khimari's oath-brother Auron. Still, Rikku couldn't quite bring herself to feel too sad that Auron had died... or rather, been Sent. (really could you call it dying if they were already dead?) She imagined that he would have had a hard time adjusting to peace after a lifetime of fighting anyway, and he was reunited somewhere on the misty Farplane with his old friends Braska and Jecht, so Rikku imagined that he was probably happy (or as happy as Auron got anyway). Still, even on such a festive occasion, having all of them together did remind them of the one who wasn't with them. They'd once been seven, and now they were six.

_Still, six is better than five. Way better_, she thought.

There were times when she felt nostalgic for the old times she'd had, traveling with her friends on the Pilgrimage. At the time it had been a journey frought with peril and a lot of sadness and worry for Yuna, her cousin who was going to sacrifice her life. That had kinda put a damper on things. Rikku thought it would be kinda fun to get all of her former Guardian friends together and do it all over, this time with no threat of death hanging over their heads... unfortunately right now Lulu and Wakka had an infant son to worry about and couldn't be taken away from their baby boy for so long a period of time and Yuna was expecting. Tidus hoped it was a boy, but claimed that he'd be just as happy with a little girl to spoil, just as long as she looked like her mother.

_It seems sometimes like everyone's moving on without me_, she thought a little wistfully.

Still, at least she still had her freedom. That, and lots and lots of gil. Her savings from her sphere hunting days in the Gullwings had been drained by having to buy parts from the Faction and pay for the shipping of others as well as pay for labor during those times when she just couldn't do it all on her own, and then outfitting her baby after she'd got it all together had been another expense. But in the last few months after she'd gotten her ship up and runing Rikku had made back most of the gil she'd had to spend getting the ship ready.

And now she was dropping by to visit Yuna and Tidus on her way to Bikanel Island to haggle with her good-for-nothing father over parts to upgrade her baby. The Ghiki _ran _just fine, and it was plenty manuverable, but Rikku had thought of a new way she could route the power that might give it a little more speed and she wanted to try it out but in order to do it she needed certain parts and tools, ones that could be found more cheaply in Bikanel rather than at the Machine Faction. Besides, she already had one part on order from Gippal, she wasn't sure she wanted to owe him any more favors.

"Uncle Cid just called," Yuna said, after Rikku knocked on the wood framing of the little hut in Besaid that she shared with Tidus.

"Oh? Hows the old curmudgeon doing?" Rikku asked. "Has he blown up the city yet?"

Yuna smiled a little at her younger cousin's levity.

"No, but he's heard that you're here and he wants you to come home for a visit. He says that he expects to see you by the end of the sennight. He's invited Tidus and me as well. He says that he has something of my mothers that he wants to give me."

"Well, I was going to go there anyway," she said cheerfully. "You guys are welcome to ride with me. In fact, I'd welcome the company."

"Then I hope you don't mind us coming along as well?" Lulu's dry voice said from the doorway. "Selda the weaver says that the fees at Kilika port just went up so she wants to see if she can make some extra gil by selling her wares to that new port on Bikanel Island. She's requested that Wakka and me act as her agents in the new city, just to scope things out for her."

"Oh, sure. The more the merrier!" Rikku said enthusiastically. "I've got room for everyone and I'd be happy to have you guys along. Independence is great but I do get lonely sometimes."

"Gippal from the Machine Faction just called as well," Yuna said, watching her younger cousin avidly without seeming to. "He said to tell you that Shinra finished with that programming chip for the ships main computer that you asked for and he also said that the part you ordered was in and he's willing to sell for a good price."

"Huh. Well that's generous of him," Rikku said, sounding mystified. "I wonder what he's up to."

Yuna shrugged.

"Well" Rikku said. "I guess I'll have to zip over there first before I take off for Bikanel. I won't be more than a day, we can leave when I get back."

"Lulu and I have packing to do anyway," Yuna assured her. "And Tidus and Wakka have to find an alternate coach for the Aurochs before they leave."

"Not Beclem," Rikku said, making a face.

She remembered well that ass's unsavoy attitude from the last time they'd crossed paths; she'd nearly summoned Godhand and given him a _personal _demonstration of the kind of strength it took to fight Sin. She'd only backed off because Yunie had stepped up to the plate herself and made him eat his words. Personally Rikku wished she'd made him eat a bullet, but Yunie had always been too nice; even after she'd beaten his stupid gauntlet the High Summoner only got a grudging acknowledgement out of that jerk.

"Yevon, I hope not," Yunie muttered.

Sure, she'd been nice and polite to him but she didn't like his attitude either. Rikku partially hoped that he'd cross paths with Tidus one day soon, the blonde never brooked anyone bad-mouthing his girl and he'd probably be only too happy to make mincemeat out of the rude Crusader, even over Yunie's protests.

"I'll be back in a bit," Rikku said, waving cheerfully from the docking bay of her ship. A few minutes later the hovering airship rose vertically up into the air, the engines pulsed for a minute as she oriented on her new heading and the Ghiki shot towards the horizon.

The Headquarters of the Machine Faction at what had once been Djose Temple was its usual hive of activity. Someone had gotten the brilliant idea to put some kind of recognizer-sensor machina on the door for when Rikku walked up to the enormous bas-relief, gilded, and ornately carved doors of the temple, an enormous mechanical camera-eye shoved itself into her face, sent a scanning laser over her and a mechanical voice from a speaker ordered her

"State your name."

"It's Rikku," she said, irritated at the reception.

"Voice print recognized. Owner: Cid's Girl," the chirpy voice of the computer informed her. She leveled a glaer at it as the doors opened mechanically on thier own and the camera eye shot back to its original position beside the door; she knew precisely who was responsible for that one.

"Very funny, Gippal," Rikku grumbled under her breath.

*

_:Talk about a one-track mind_,: Gippal thought a little ruefully as the computer informed him of her arrival. She doesn't respond to any of his attempts at seduction, but the moment he mentions cheap machina parts she comes running right over. Or make that strutting, he noted as he watched her walk into the room with the air of a reighning queen gracing her subjects with her presence. Only Rikku could walk into someone elses territory acting like she owned the place.

:_Guess I'll just have to show her who's Leader here_,: he thought smugly, straightening from where he crouched checking over the innards of a patroller machina. She walked right past Gippal without even sparing him a single glance. Well, that should make it easier to sneak up on her anyway.

"Hey Shinra!" she called over to her former Gullwing friend. "You said you finished that new programmer chip?"

"Sure, got it right here," Shinra said. "Interesting idea, adding on a voice addressing system, took some doing to get the commands differentiated out. This sphere contains a list of protocols and basic user guide. Let me know if there's any kinks, it hasn't been beta-tested yet so there could be some trouble."

"Thanks," she chirped. "I'll let you know if I have any problems. Hey, where's Gippal anyway? He said something about having a C-13 signal modulator that he was willing to sell me."

"Miss me, Cid's Girl?" he demanded, wrapping an arm about her waist from behind and yanking her off balance against his chest.

Gippal figured that the reason she was so reluctant to take him as a lover was simple inexperience and the fact that she didn't know him that well. If he could make her more comfortable around him, she'd stop being so jumpy whenever he got near. The best way to make her comfortable, he figured, was to simply make her _like _being close to him. The only way to do that was regular physical contact.

"Gippal," she whined complainingly. "You nearly scared me to my Sending Party."

"Your reflexes must be getting dull," he teased her. "I snuck right up on you."

She hadn't shoved him away yet, which was a good sign.

"My reflexes are just fine," she replied, poking him in the chest with her pointer finger.

:_Ow, she's got quite an arm there_,: he was forced to admit after the poking had actually hurt a little.

"And you mentioned something about having a C-13 signal modulator in," she pressed, trying to shove him away. He moved out of the way by switching sides and steering her towards his office with his other arm.

"Here, let's discuss this privately; in my office," he said, fully intent of discussing other things privately in his office as well. Maybe he'd get to give her a "private interview" of his own; the position... potential lifemate. It came with a lot of perks, not the least of which was getting to be around him and all of his fabulousness all the time.

The rumors about Gippal being nothing more than a playboy who liked to have fun with women and went through lovers like popcorn were unfortunate; he really _was _attempting to find a good lifemate. He'd meet a girl and they'd spend a little time getting to know one another better, but then... it just never quite worked out. He'd lose interest, or (more rarely) she'd decide that he wasn't what she was looking for and they'd go their separate ways. Oh, he liked women certainly, some said that he liked women a little too well, but this constant moving from one girl to the next to the next was frankly a trifle _demoralizing_.

Then there was Cids Girl, Rikku.

Already famous in her own right, and not just because she was the current Leaders daughter. She was the Hero(ine) of the Al Bhed for facing down Sin and helping to defeat it. Gippal had seen for himself how effective she was in a fight (which made him give a little inward chuckle as to Cid's plans for her... the old man had _no idea _what he was getting into) when he'd watched her race right past him and put the whup on Vegnagun's big metal behind. She was skilled with machina, so skilled in fact that she might possibly give even him a run for his gil... maybe. She was independently wealthy, which was really the only kind to be among their people. She was already high-status so there was no inequality there. She seemed like she could perhaps be the one he'd been waiting for; she already fit most of his criteria and she was really cute. With that unconscious sensuality she displayed in her own ingenue manner he'd be willing to bet she'd be more than a match for him in the area of bedroom acrobatics. She was infamously free-spirited so he wouldn't have to worry about her becoming too clingy and driving him nuts with constant demands on his time.

:_But come to think of it_,: he thought. :_I don't wonder if maybe she's a little **too **independent_.: Among their people Al Bhed men prided themselves not on taming their women but in getting their proud desert lionesses to hunt beside them. Rikku didn't seem to see anything in him that was worth the taking time from her own hunts to join him in his.

:_She's just shy_,: he assured himself when she shoved him away.

He hadn't counted on Rikku's sharp instincts however and was unpleasantly surprised when she put her foot down (on his instep no less) and said

"Ooohhh-no, we'll discuss it here. There's no way I'm going anywhere alone with you."

"Ouch, Cid's Girl," he said. He tried once again to put an arm around her shoulder, but she moved too quickly. "Don'cha trust me?"

"Not a bit," she informed him cheerfully.

Gippal's workers guffawed around him, and no small number of them called out congratulations to Cid's Girl for being so smart. Most of those were followed by one of the Al Bhed sayings "even tender baby chocobo's know a queen couerl when they see one" meaning that even the most innocent of creatures knew a threat to them when they were presented to it. Gippal was forced to ignore the slight.

"I'm hurt. Crushed," he insisted, miming a blow to his heart.

"It'd take a lot more than the truth to wound _your _ego," she replied. "Now let's talk machina. You are the Machine Faction Leader, right? Or am I looking for someone else?"

"Alright, alright," he said. He'd play it her way, for the moment.

"Actually," he said slowly to stall her while he thought quickly. There was a way he could get a little time alone with her... and she probably wouldn't feel the least threatened by him.

"The part you're looking for isn't here, exactly."

It wasn't even a lie, exactly. He had one or two of the parts she was looking for here at th headquarters, but the ones that were already prepped for use were being moved from further down the moonflow.

She looked at him in puzzlement and said

"Then where is it?"

"Southbank of the moonflow," he replied. "I was just going to pick it up. You can come along if you want." He finally managed to snag his arm around her once again and pulled her outside with him. She tried to protest a little bit but he overrode his objections with a casual

"Relax, I'm an excellent pilot. You'll like riding behind me on my airsled."

"I have an airship," she pointed out but he ignored her and steered her towards a nearby airsledge, one of the ones that he had hired out for fast rides up and down the Mushroom Rock Road and down to the moonflow. He motioned with a quick move of his hand that current pilot should vacate his current seat and go find something else to do.

"We don't need that tub for a quick hop to the moonflow," he said sliding into position on the Faction airsled. "Climb on behind me."

"No way, I always drive the sledge," she told him.

"Except when I'm driving," he rebutted as he gave the controls a quick run-over and few short feild tests to make sure everything was in good working order. "My sledge, my part, my driving. Get on."

"How do I know you won't crash us into a tree?" she said looking dubiously at him while he looked over the controls.

"You're just gonna have to trust me," he said, giving her his best disarming smile. She looked even more nervous at that and muttered something that sounded like "said the sand-spider to the gorm."

She gingerly, very obviously trying not to actually touch him, slid into the seat behind him and sat there, holding onto the seat behind her.

"That's not gonna keep you on this baby when I get moving," Gippal informed her. "You'd better hang on to me."

"You're not gonna do anything weird are you?" she demanded suspiciously.

_:Geeze, I'm starting to wonder just what kind of reputation I've got_,: he thought.

"I've got both hands on the controls," he said, a little impatiently. "How am I supposed to do anything weird? Besides, you're a tough girl, I'm sure you can more than take care of yourself." He added that last in there to reassure her enough to get her to get on the damn bike already.

She scootched forward and tucked her body along his back, sliding her hands around his waist. He ignored to pang of attraction that speared his gut at the feeling of her curled softly against him.

:_Her arms are so small_!: he thought, privately a little taken aback. It seemed like he could snap one of her wrists with one hand. She always had just a big attitude that he often forgot just how small she actually was. He quickly revved the engine a little and took off down the little wooded path to the moonflow.


	4. lovely day for an whuppin'

_:This is nice_,: he thought, a little enchanted by the feel of the wind rushing past them. :_I should find excuses to go for a ride more often._:

Or maybe it was the fact that the girl he had his eye on was clinging to him in a very distracting manner.

_:There she goes with that unconscious sensuality again_.:

The girl seemed to have no idea what kind of effect she had on people, especially men, with the way she moved and spoke.

Ordinarily, when a person was riding on an airsled there was no danger at all of being attacked by a fiend or ambushed by road bandits. But times they were a-changin' and the bandits were getting smarter. Gippal discovered this when a cable, weighted on either end by two enormous rocks, abruptly tightened popping up from the middle of the path and clothesline-ing the two of them. The rope grabbed the front end causing the back end to swerve to the right.

"Hang on!" he yelled, jerking hard on the handlebars and slamming on the brakes to let the sled spin out and lose some of its forward momentum. Rikku screamed and tightened her grip on his stomach. If he ever found the bastards responsible for ruining his date, he was going to have a little conversation with them with his Mortar.

"We're gonna roll!" Rikku said. He could feel that she was right; the spin-out had too much momentum on the top. If they rolled while still on the sledge, they'd be crushed.

"Jump!" he ordered.

She abruptly let go of his waist and he felt her warmth and weight leave his back. In a panic he jerked his head around to check and see that she was okay but Rikku was rolling along, curled into a tight little ball. She definitely knew how to take a fall. Reassured, Gippal abandoned ship.

The impact with the ground wasn't comfortable but the blow was distributed out through the rest of his body when he rolled to a stop. Nothing broken though, he knew as he gave himself a once-over to test.

"Owwie," he heard Rikku groan from a nearby bush. When he looked over she was rubbing her offended rear end.

"Y'alright Cid's Girl?" he called over. He didn't hear her reply for she was interrupted by

"Gimme yer gil!" A trio of rough-voiced bandits in mis-matched armor wielding enormous swords. Gippal rolled his eyes and reached for his weapon. Not there.

:_Of all the stupid_--!: he cursed himself. He hadn't brought Mortar with him!

"Piss off!" Rikku replied politely. She was already in fighting stance, ready and waiting for him to join her--

:_Or not_,: he thought as she attacked suddenly.

To his amusement, Rikku pulled a Mug on her target, robbing him blind and sending him into a coma in the process.

"Hey!" one of the bandits hollered in offense as his comrade went down and Rikku announced proudly that there wasn't nothin' she couldn't steal.

:I guess bandits see nothing wrong with robbery, except when it happens to them,: Gippal thought grinning as he pulled out his only back-up weapon; his ornately decorated longcolt from his days in the Crimson Squad. Never leave home without it.

"Mind if I join the party?" he inquired, all ease and charm as he took up his stance beside his girl.

He took aim at the second bandit and fired off a round. Direct hit. The bandit didn't go down though, he still had some fight left in him. Rikku, fast as a sniperviper striking, darted in and stole from the bandit he'd targeted. Gippal finished him off after she was done with him.

"I... gotta go!" the third bandit called turning tail and running, leaving his two fallen comrades to litter the road while he ran to safetly. Gippal mentally debated the emotional satisfaction he might get from taking a few potshots at the guy who had ruined his peaceful afternoon, not to mention causing him to total his machina, but nah... shooting people in the back wasn't his style.

"Coward!" Rikku called after him.

Gippal looked down at the two bandits lying at thier feet, debating what to do next. He was pretty steamed about not only his airsled being busted, but their little ambush had ruined his afternoon with Rikku.

"What'cha think we should do with _them_?" Rikku wondered, joining him in his perusal of the two ambushers. "I mean, they did try to rob us, but look at them; they look kinda down on their luck."

"Down on their luck?" Gippal said, his voice laced with disbelief. "Rikku, these men prey on innocent travelers. Don't feel sorry for them when the only thing motivating them is pure greed."

"But what if it isn't?" she asked. "I mean, what if they just can't find work and so they're robbing people because they have no other choice?"

That was so _sweet_, and so like her, to want to believe the best of people. For someone who'd seen and done as much as she had to still retain that innocence, well, that's rare. It made him want to protect her, but that was one thing that Al Bhed made it a habit to avoid; they didn't protect each other, they watched each others backs. There was a difference.

"I doubt that's the case," Gippal said flatly. "For one thing, if they were looking for work all they have to do is interview at the machine faction; a couple of guys like these I'd post as caravan guards if I didn't send 'em digging. Or if they don't wanna work for the Al Bhed, they could find work as soldiers in Nooj's little army. I know Baralai's short on temple guards right now too. So it's not because they can't find work, it's because they're lazy and don't want to work."

"Oh," Rikku said, the wind taken out of her sails by his obvious anger with their attackers.

Gippal paced over to the airsled and called up his heaquarters on the sled's miniature comsystem.

"Hey," he said, when they'd patched through. "This is Gippal. I've got a couple of bandits unconscious that need to be hauled back and put to work. Find something really unpleasant for them. The sled got totaled too, so we'll need a cleanup crew. Rikku and I are proceeding to the moonflow."

"Rodger," the tech manning the com said. "We'll take care of it."

Gippal joined Rikku down the path at the part where it widened out and ran along the banks of the moonflow. She was standing at the edge of the shore, taking in the view. Gippal had admit that it was a nice view; the water clear and smooth as glass, the moonlilies releasing their tiny dancing motes of light and a sweet flowery scent into the air combining with the smell of the water and forest. It was a view that was just _made _for romancing.

"It's pretty huh?" she said, turning to look at him as he walked up behind her.

"Almost as pretty as you," he said automatically, taking her in his arms and giving her his best melting smile.

He was sure it would work this time, all she needed was to get out from under everything. Any second now she's look up at him with that open and vulnerable look in her eyes, her breath would catch and her heart would pound and he'd be right there, ready to seal the deal with a kiss.

"Oh _please_, how corny," she laughed. "Does that _seriously _work on girls?"

Not the reaction he'd been hoping for.

"Most o' the time, yeah," he said, unable to disguise the disgruntlement in his tone.

What was it with this girl anyway? Was she even the least bit suceptible to _anything_? Compliments didn't work, atmosphere didn't work, trapping her alone with him hadn't worked... what did it take to get through to her?

"Well, I'm different," she assured him. "I'm Rikku."

"Yeah, I know," he said.

He studied her for a very long moment in the soft light of the moonflow. She was more complicated and enigma than what fist showed on the surface. Quite the mystery in fact. To Gippal, most girls were like machina, you tried all of the obvious tells first, trip the engine, check the spark-plugs see if the fuel gage was low and so forth. Not Rikku, she was like one of those machina where nothing obvious worked, she was like one of those machina where you really had to get in there and take them completely apart before you figured out what made them tick.

"Well how 'bout we see a little more of the cute Rikku,' he said, trying to put a hand possessively on her shoulder.

"You could say 'Oh Gippal! You were so brave and manly! You saved my life, I don't know what I would have done without you!" he said, clasping his hands to his chest in a deliberately bad impersonation of her. "How 'bout a little more a' that? Hm?"

"No way! I have my pride," she said primly. "And besides, I did most of my own rescuing anyway."

"Well at the very least we should see a little more flinging yourself into my arms and exclaiming how great I am."

"Yeah. That'll never happen. I'm _Rikku_, remember?"

He studied her for a brief second more, then abruptly released her with a satisfied noise.

:_Got it_.:

"C'mon, it's this way if you're interested in that part," he said, turning on his heel and walking off to the left where his Faction had set up a floating dock on the moonflow for deliveries via Faction motorboats on the northbank or up from the mouth of the river.

"Hey!" she protested. "Wait for me!"

"Hurry it up Cid's Girl, I ain't got all day to waste while you dance around on the banks," he said roughly, ruffling her hair once she caught up with him.

"You big meanie! You we're the one goofing off, wasting time first!" she protested.

"Whatever you say little one," he said in honeyed tones.

"Don't call me that!" she growled, ambling along beside him like a frisky little puppy.

He understood now, Rikku was a tough machina to crack but Gippal hadn't met a machina (or a girl for that matter) that he hadn't been able to make run the way he wanted it to yet. All it took was some patience and a little persistence.

* * *

**Yay! Update! Please read and reveiw. I know it starts a little slow, but just sit back and enjoy the ride, it gets fun and interesting later on, for now we get fun fluffy stuff.**


	5. Swing Swing

The ride on the airship over was fun, just like a second Pilgrimage, only no Sin this time. Watching Wakka and Lulu as parents was both eye-opening and a little heart-warming. Vidina got into everything, but the little cherub was so cute and inquisitive that Rikku could never find it in her to scold him. Fortunately Lulu made up for it. Daddy Wakka was perhaps a little easy going when it came to child care, he seemed to be of the opinion that if the baby got a couple of little zaps figuring out that playing with the electrical socket hurt, he'd learn better that way. But to give the blitzer credit, if something was truly dangerous he'd gently shoo the child away and give him a toy to play with. Lulu seemed to take her husbands easy-going attitude in stride, she'd scold them both a little for being like children but Rikku could tell that her heart wasn't in it; it was just Lulu's nature to fuss and be in control all of the time.

Tidus and Yuna were like two kids, and Rikku had fun with them just the same as ever. The two were always together but they made time for Rikku too. She even seriously considered Tidus' suggestion that she build a portable blitzball room on her ship. In the middle of the day at Wakka's request they'd often stop to hover just at the surface of the ocean and haul out a blitzball and a couple of Al Bhed inflatable rafts (for Lulu and the baby) and play blitzball for the afternoon. They weren't really in any great hurry, and it seemed that, with Auntie Rikku willing to play babysitter every couple of hours, Wakka and Lulu were being treated to a miniature vacation. After a few enjoyable, fun-filled days, they at last made their liesurely way far enough south to draw close to Bikanel Island.

"There it is!" Rikku exclaimed bringing the first sight of the port city of New Home up on the viewing-screen of the Ghiki.

It gleamed like a frost-white jewel in between the sands of the desert and the sparkling harbor waters. Sunlight glistened off the enormous sun-crysts crowning gleaming white towers. The streets of the city were patterned with inlaid stone-tile geometrics of many colors, and the crystaline streetlamps lining the streets were waiting for the night to light up.

It was a city; an honest-to-ancestors actual _city_! A city with tall, proud white buildings that reached for the sky, like strange weeds in the sunlight, flying machina buzzing in and out of the glistening towers like colorful birds. It was far from being a maze of cobbled-together machinery surrounded by a wall that _old _Home had been. The outline of New home sprawled out from the harbor along the Bikanel shoreline, open and inviting. It was obviously being set up to accommodate trade and fishing.

It was also very obviously a work-in-progress; the streets were being built by teams of Al Bhed, wielding retrofitted exoskeletons being used for builder-machina. The buildings were also built the same way, the machina made the work go faster but there was still a human mind in control of the beast. Part of the reason for that, Rikku knew, was so that the eventual trade that her pops hoped to invite from the Mainland would not be unnerved by a place run entirely by machina.

The city itself was powered by sunstones, a version of the Macalania Crystals that Shinra had developed to capture the power of the sunlight and turn it into usable energy. Tall white towers ringed with mirrors had giant crystals sparkling at the tips of them. Rin called it a stop-gap measure until they could figure out a way to tap into the limitless energy of the Farplane, but, personally, Rikku _liked _the tall elegant sun-towers with the giant glistening crystals at the tips and the faceted mirrors at the bases to reflect the sunlight into the stones. They looked pretty, like sparkly flowers buds or something.

The street-level of the city was given over entirely to foot-traffic, bazaars and shops lined every built section of the skeletal city and it already breathed with the life and sounds of a happy and busy populace going about their daily lives, selling breads and spices and cloths and jewelries and fresh fish and all manner of goods brought in from the enterprising trade caravans of her people (there were no people like the Al Bhed for having a corner on trade now that they weren't exiled to the sands). All of the buildings in the orderly streets had at least three levels, often more than that, with the first level acting as a shop or store for the family goods, and the second level was where the family lived, slipt up into apartments for the differnt branches of the family. It was also on the "second level," above the streets, that air-trafic was consigned. AlBhed liked to use real hovers (that actually "hovered" instead of just skimming along on the ground) and air-sledges. Anything larger that those smaller transports, however had to park outside the airspace of the city.

"How come there aren't any individual houses?" Yuna asked curiously, after looking around and seeing only large buildings towering over bazaars or training grounds or parks and communal areas.

Rikku was forced to explain to her cousin that the Al Bhed were a communal people so they generally tended to like to live around one another. An _entire _family unit, she said, including not only mothers and fathers, their children and the grandparents, but also more often than not, certain aunts and uncles as well as gaggles of young cousins, usually liked to own an entire building and divide them into living quarters to share among their kin. Many families simply bought the _entire _building and ran a business from the bottom of it, lived in the second story, and reserved the third for future growth or used it as a retreat.

"But then there's others like me," she added. "Who like to wander around a lot. Most of those live nowadays on airships that ship goods for trade to the Al Bhed, or on large ships that troll the seas for more machina like traditional Al Bhed. Although that last is starting to die out more and More because of Gippal's Machine Faction, most just go over to Djose and work with them, but for people like me, who are always on the move, pops built a place to accommodate those people who spend a lot of time just passing through."

She pointed out a place along the edge of the Bikanel Shores in the northeastern part of the city where there were airship-hubs hooked into the powerlines. Those Al Bhed who owned an airship could hook into the power for a small fee to supply their ships. These affluent places were surrounded by tiny business-villages of public baths, and restaurants and shops where the ones who lived in the airships could pay for their services and have all of the amenities of home. Or at least that was the plan anyway, right now everything was sort of skeletal and half-finished but anyone could see the potential of the vision.

"Impressive," Lulu said after taking in the aerial view of New Home. "I hadn't suspected that anyone could build so fast but this looks like a true city Rikku, certainly sophisticated enough to rival that of Luca, or even Bevelle."

"It looks even bedder dan your old home did, ya?" Wakka seconded.

"It's not a fortress," Tidus said, sounding a little disappointed.

"Of course not silly," Rikku said, poking his arm. "We Al Bhed don't have to hide anymore."

She tactfully did not mention the secret underground bunkers that they'd built into the city's floor plan... just in case.

"I'm bringing her around to take her in," Rikku said. "We can hook up to one of those airship hubs just off the port."

"They had those in Zanarkand," Tidus remarked. "That's where I had my home, was in one of those airship hubs."

"Where do you think pops got the idea?" Rikku said honestly.

"The view kinda reminds me of that time in Bevelle, you know, with the dragon?" Wakka remarked.

Suddenly, Tidus got a wide grin across his face.

"Hey Rikku," he said, wrestling a strong arm around her shoulder. He cocked his head at the port on screen and grinned significantly at her. "Ya wanna?"

Rikku looked at him for a moment, then a matching mischievous grin spread across her face; the two young Guardians had always been on the same wavelength when it came to getting into trouble (and saving Yuna's life of course).

"Pops will have an apoplectic _fit _if we shoot harpoons into his port," she informed him with a serious, dignified voice. Then her face brightened into its usual Rikku-ness. "Lets do it!"

Yuna chucked softly and added

"I didn't get a chance to slide down the last time."

"I can't believe we're actually considering this," Lulu said, sounding aggrieved as they stepped out onto the deck. The Ghiki was on auto-pilot, hovering in the air just at the edge of the port. The sea wind blew at their clothing and it was a gorgeous day for a slide.

"C'mon little man," Wakka said, hoisting his son into his arms and giving him a little toss. "Let Daddy show you how it's done, ya?" Vidina burbled in delight.

"Ghiki!" Rikku shouted into her ships auto pilot command. "Harpoons away!"

Abruptly two heavy wire-lines shot out of the side of the ship whistling towards the dock on shore.

"Let's go!" Yuna said, stepping up to one.

"Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!!!" Tidus whooped jumping off to kick start the descent. Yuna was right behind him. Wakka grinned and surfed down the other cable holding his son tightly in his arms. The zipping noise increased as Rikku, with a yelp of joy and excitement, and Lulu, more sedately, stepped off the ship and started sliding down the cables.

The wind whipped around them as the slid, the cables zipping and swaying in the stiff sea-breeze. All around them was blue; blue sky, blue ocean, and it seemed like they were really flying, suspended in between them in a world of blue and wind and sunshine. Tidus was leaping and flipping from cable to cable.

"Show off!" Rikku shouted at him. Not one to be outdone, especially in front of her own people, Rikku joined his escapades, trying for double flips.

Yuna was laughing, her arms spread wide like she was flying. Vidina gurgled and cooed in delight from his fathers strong and protective embrace. Even Lulu seemed to be having a good time, oh she wasn't grinning and laughing, but there was a certain quality to her slightly upturned lips that said she wasn't as against the fun and games as she pretended to be.

It was way better than the Pilgrimage. _Way _better. (No wedding to creepy dead guy with a girly voice for one thing.)

When they reached the wood planking of the port they all leaped off at once, with a flourish, to the applause and cheers of a very large crowd that had gathered there. All four of them were laughing, even Lulu, the serious one. Wakka hefted his son and Tidus informed the young boy...

"That's how it's done."

* * *

**I couldn't help it, I loved that scene from the game! Review?**


	6. Step Right Up

Rikku stomped on the gatlings to release them and ordered her ship to wind them back up and dock at docking bay nine.

Once the levity was over with, Lulu took a good look around her and her brow furrowed in puzzlement.

"There seem to be a lot more people here on the dock than I had expected,"she said as she noted the rather large crowd milling around. What puzzled her most was the fact that they _were_ milling around, usually docksides were flurries of activity as people tried to load and unload cargo and passengers at a frenzied pace so they could move along to thier next destination, but everyone on this dockside was simply loitering about in a large crowd.

"What's going on I wonder," she finished in mystification.

"Maybe a circus?" Rikku suggested hopefully.

There was a big tent nearby. All the people milling around outside of it were all Al Bhed. Most of them appeared to be men.

"I don't t'ink dat's it, ya?" Wakka said, scratching the back of his head and looking around. "Do any o' da rest o' you feel like mebbe we walked inta somthin' big?"

"Ah! Here's the guest of honor now!" the loud, gruff voice of Rikku's father, Cid, shouted out above the noise of the crowd.

"Guest of honor?" Rikku said, puzzled. "I don't recall anyone mentioning a party."

But if they were going to throw one anyway, she was _more _than all for it. Her father approached her, looking smug about something. Rikku was immediately suspicious.

"Pops, what's going on?" she asked when he reached the four, (actually five if you counted the drooling baby) former Guardians and Summoner.

"I'm holdin' ya to yer word," he said.

"Um, what are you talking about?" Rikku said, a little mystified.

"The last time you were here ya said y'd git hitched to anyone who cud beat ya in single combat in a fair fight," Cid said. "Well I've arranged to make things fair. This way, anyone who wants to can have a crack at it."

He straightened up, looking very pleased with himself, and began pointing out the different articles to his grand idea while Rikku looked at him in dismay and dawning realization that her father had just done it again. As if that Zanarkand debacle hadn't been bad enough!

"Right there's the registration tent, over there's the fightin' circle, where you can have yer battles, and that right there is--"

The four former Guardians looked around them in shock. These young men were very obviously gearing up for a fight.

"Whoawhoawhoa!" Rikku said. "Hold the com-sphere, did you just say _registration tent_? You're registering people for..."

"A battle tournament! Winner get's mah pride n' joy," he said with a sigh, looking nostalgic.

"Please tell me you mean your airship," Rikku said.

"Nope. Y' did say that anyone who could fight ya and win could have ya fer his wife, I'm jus' helpin' the process along a little," he said cheerfully. "Nice turn-out by the way."

"Grrrrrrg!" she yelled in frustration. "The turnout is not the problem here. P-o-o-o-o-o-ops! I may have said this, but this--" She gestured wildly around her to where there were clusters of young Al Bhed men stretching out and making some practice fighting maneuvers on the nearby docks.

"Is definitely not what I had in mind! I thought maybe you' set me up with one or two dates, not just _auction _me off to the best fighter!"

"Well y'said y'wanted someone ta watch yer back and fer once ya seemed ta be talkin' sense," Cid said, crossing his arms over his chest. "You gave yer word as an Al Bhed that you'd marry the one who could beat you."

"Yunie," Rikku appealed to her reasonable, diplomatic cousin (and apparently the only membr of her family that was not crazy!). "Can't you talk some sense into him?"

"Uncle Cid," she said, trying to disguise her dismay with the situation. "This is a little... scratch that, a _lot _unusual. I don't think that hosting a battle tournament with your daughter as the prize is the best way to go about searching for a husband."

"Well she ain't gettin' any searchin' done on 'er own, and she ain't gettin' any younger either!" Cid replied.

"Who are you calling _old_?" Rikku demanded. She was only nineteen, for Ancestors sake!

"And just how long, precisely is this tournament to last?" Lulu asked archly, fixing Cid with one of her more intimidating stares.

He did seem a little intimidated, especially since she was fingering her favorite bangle, the one with the pertrify effect on it.

"Till she finds a husband," Cid said shortly.

"Unacceptable," Lulu said flatly over Rikku's yelp of dismay.

"Now you see here," he snapped, not liking someone else, especially a woman, giving him orders. "I'd like ta remind ya'all that Rikku's m'daughter, an' what I say goes!"

"That is so--!" Rikku started.

But Lulu just looked at him calmly and said almost lazily

"And I would remind _you _sir, that Rikku is also a former Guardian, like us, and thus part of _our _little family. And as her comrades in arms, we'll be imposing one or two minor little conditions on this little debacle you insist on hosting."

"Conditions? Y'just cain't waltz in here and start laying down the law," Cid harumphed. "I am the Leader here and--"

A nearby collection of crates and empty boxes suddenly exploded, raining down in fiery little pieces. Lulu fingered her wristlets again, blew on her finger tips and casually surveyed the charred results of her firaga spell. She looked at Cid cooly

"You were saying?"

"Uh, well... I guess I might be willin' ta hear ya out," he grumbled. "Just in the interests of fairness."

"Of course," she said blandly. "I think we can both agree that asking Rikku to fight contestants back to back in tourney every single day is unfair to her. You wouldn't want to wear your daughter out after all. So I would propose that she get it all over with in one shot. One day of fighting from dawn until sunset, she'll face as many contestants as you can get registered."

"One day!" Cid gasped. "I've already got fifty promising young men lined up, there's no way she can fight them all in a single day. It isn't fair to them if they don't get a try. One week," he countered.

"Two days," Lulu countered. "And after the course of the battles has run, then Rikku is never forced into marriage by combat again."

"I can't believe we're discussing this," Yuna said in the background.

"Don't worry Yuna," Tidus comforted her. "This is Rikku we're talking about, I doubt that anything these sand-yahoos could throw at her will even scratch her."

"Four days and I get to marry 'em on the spot," Cid countered.

"Three days and Yuna will be the maid of honor," Lulu said with what passed for dry mirth with her. "That is provided, of course that any of them actually win. Unlikely. She is a Guardian after all."

There was a four-way smile of camaraderie passed between all of the former Guardians.

"Fine," he said. "Done and done."

"Three days fighting any of your registered warriors from dawn until the sun sinks below the horizon," Lulu said, all business. "Rikku agrees to marry said warrior if he bests her in a straightforward battle, the timing of the battle not to exceed that of sunset. If said warrior manages to defeat Rikku after the time the sun sinks below the horizon then the battle is automatically forfeit to her. The definition of defeat being that the warrior in question brings the opponents life-force to zero. The tournaments shall not exceed three days, any contestants registered that do not get their chance to battle Rikku within that time understand that any battles fought after the tournament is closed have no bearing on the terms and conditions applied herein. These are the terms."

"Geeze, no wonder Besaid wants Lulu to represent their trade interests," Tidus muttered to Rikku. "She's one sharp customer."

Rikku nodded emphatic agreement. She expected to see her father with a blank look on his face, but he seemed to have caught and understood all of her little spiel for he nodded and offered his hand to seal the deal.

"Fine," he said. "It starts tomorrow."

"That's the best I could do," Lulu said regretfully to Rikku. "You did give your word, after all."

"I hadn't thought he'd do something like... _this_," she gestured at the tents with eager young men in knots around them preparing to battle over a girl. "I was expecting maybe a date or two, I'd rough them up a little and that'd be it."

"Well, look at it dis way, ya?" Wakka said, patting her shoulder. "All you hafta do is win."

Rikku cocked her head to one side, looking at the contestants consideringly. They were all Al Bhed, most about or near her age... a few battle scarred veterans, but for the most part all of them seemed to be entirely wet behind the ears.

"It's in the bag," Tidus said confidently. "Lookit these guys! I could sneeze on them and they'd probably fall over. Nah, I don't think Rikku will have any troubles."

"Don't get overconfident," Lulu admonished. "They still have sheer numbers."

"They have to face me one by one," Rikku pointed out.

"But after going round after round with different teams, even da most determined blitzer will be feeling a little tired, ya?" Wakka said.

"Rikku's going to do just fine," Yuna defended. "And I could just kick Uncle Cid for putting all of this on her."

"Want us to help?" Lulu offered in agreement. They all chuckled, lessening the tension.

"Well, the contest isn't until tomorrow," Rikku chirped in her usual cheerful manner. "Why don't I show you guys around the city until then? I can show you where the trade center is set up and you can talk with port authorities about the best places to find venues for... whatever it is you're selling Lulu."

"Thank-you, that will be excellent," the older woman smiled at Rikku.

"And besides, you might need me along to translate, even some of the traders don't speak mainlander very well," she added. "And after that I can show you two where they're building the blitzball stadium. Pops says its going to rival even the one in Luca!"

"Cooool," Wakka and Tidus said in unison. The three women shared a speaking glance at the look in their husbands (minus Rikku) eyes at the mention of anything sports related.

"And after we drop the boys off there for some fun and games, why don't we do a little shopping Yunie? You can find just about anything at the bazaars here."

"That sounds fun," she agreed. Besaid Island didn't have nearly the venues a girl could ask for, being limited to a single shop that sold basic supplies; potions, phoenix downs and the like, and a weaver-shop.

"That would be wonderful,"Yuna agreed. "I've never seen an Al Bhed bazaar before."

"It's settled then!" Rikku said cheerfully, all thoughts of her impending battle for freedom forgotten in the excitment over getting to show her friends around her new hometown.

* * *

**Just a small update this time, mostly setting up for the actual tournament. There's more fun Rikuu and Gippal interaction in a few chapters, so get ready for that. As always, please reveiw and let me know what you thought. I personally, liked the spiel from Lulu, I could fully see her doing that; she's such a quiet, intelligent little badass.**


	7. How Bazaar

They spent an enjoyable afternoon indulging in watching the boys practice blitzball with the Psyches and wandering around browsing in the numerous bazaars and shops. Lulu left off the shopping halfway to go and attend to her business.

The bazaars were crammed with stuff in no particular order. Fruits and fish and bread stalls were piled in alongside ceramics and pottery sellers. There was a stall that sold what looked like a thousand different things made out of copper all jumbled together on his table and hung on chains around the side of his stall chaotically. Next to it a seller specialized in perfect glassware; mirrors in frames of carved wood or mosaic tile or wrought iron hung over a display counter with the most delicate hand-blown glass bottles for perfume. There was perfumery selling essential oils and hand-cremes next door. These and so many other things were sold in the bazaars of Bikanel.

Yuna and Rikku wandered through the Bazaars aimlessly, stopping on occasion to admire the wares or haggle on a price. The Al Bhed, as it turned out, were marvelous craftspersons, only to be expected from a people that spent a good portion of their lives working around the delicate and intricate workings of machinery. Yuna in particular admired thier exquisitely elaborate jewelry; it was made of thin wires of precious metals knotted and woven into the most intricate knotwork-geometrics. Some peices had just one kind of metal, some featured a medley of them woven into one another, some featured center-pieces of polished gemstones, others had little interwoven geometric shapes that seemed to change from one thing to another.

"It's lovely," she said, complimenting the seller whose current work she was admiring and trying mightily to fight off the temptation to buy it. "I had no idea that the Al Bhed did jewelry that's so exquisite, look you can see the shape of a little Hare in this one! Oh, there's three of them with their ears in a spiral! Hey, how come you never wear any of this Rikku?"

She shrugged and said

"I would, but I'm afraid it would get lost or damaged when I went out on adventures. I lost my favorite bracelet when I went diving at Baaj Temple."

As it turned out, Yunie had been unable to resist the lure of new jewelry. They walked away from that particular stall several pieces heavier. Rikku had fun teaching her half-blood cousin the fine art of haggling, which seemed to be a universal cultural phenomenon.

They were about to find an outside stall to eat lunch at when

"Well well, if it isn't Cid's little girl!" a voice called out to her from a nearby stall selling little machina toys for little Al Bhed girls and boys. Boy, the Machine Faction was doing _everything_ these days.

"The name's Rikku idiot," she replied kindly in Al Bhed. "I know you have a hard time remembering things from day to day, but surely you could at least remember my name."

"Oh, I _know _your name, but to me you'll always be Cids little girl."

"I'm all _woman _darn it!" she snapped.

"I'll consider changing the nickname," he said, leaning over and tapping her on the nose. "How about Gippal's Girl instead?"

"How about I wring your scrawny neck?" she suggested.

"My neck isn't scrawny," he said. "The ladies love the neck. They especially love to--"

"That's okay," she said quickly. "Spare us the details."

"I was just making some suggestions for what we can do later," Gippal said. Rikku rolled her eyes and glanced at her cousin, she brightened, getting an idea.

"You're in the presence of the High Summoner," she said officiously. "Show some decorum."

"No that's alright," Yuna said, mischievously. "Go right ahead." Gippal grinned.

"Yuuunieeeee, you're supposed to be on my side!" Rikku whined.

"That's because she want's the best for her cousin, isn't that right Yuna?" Gippal said, looping an arm around first Yuna's shoulders and then Rikku's, continuing to walk with them this way as they wandered the Bazaar. "And I think we all know that _I'm_ the best."

"Well you certainly have the biggest _ego_," Rikku scoffed. "I don't know about the rest of you."

She cocked a hip to shove him away but he neatly avoided the manuver.

"I've never had any complaints about the rest of me," Gippal said. "And you know what I'm thinking?"

"I'm afraid to ask," Rikku said honestly.

"You, me, and Yuna could make three," Gippal replied candidly. Yuna's jaw dropped.

"Did he really just say that?" she asked Rikku, sounding shocked and scandalized.

There was a throat-clearing noise from behind them. They looked back to see an un-amused Tidus standing behind them.

"Arm off my girl," Tidus said pleasantly. "She's spoken for."

"Sorry," Gippal said, removing his arm immediately.

Al Bhed, for all their loose rules regarding behavior in singles, had very strict codes of conduct with regards to when someone was attached. Yuna went to kiss Tidus and twine their fingers together, their faces a picture of adoration and devotion. Rikku regarded them with the same "aww-ing" look that most reserved for puppies.

"That could be us," Gippal said to Rikku enticingly.

"Yeah right," Rikku snorted in disbelief. "Pull the other one."

"I'm serious," he said, smiling at her.

"How about you take your arm off me before I snap it off and beat you with it?" she recommended.

Auron (the master of Threaten) had taught her a thing or two about the fine art of threatening once upon a time. Unfortunately, Auron had had the size and demeanor to pull it off; cute little Rikku looked about as intimidating as a six week old kitten hissing.

"You know I love it when you get feisty with me," Gippal said, squeezing her shoulder and pulling her closer. "How about we go back to my room and you can get _very _feisty with me?"

"Gippal!" a familiar voice with a horrendous accent shouted out over the crowd. "_Y_ou get greasy hands off from Rikku!"

Rikku never thought she'd be so glad to hear Brother's voice.

"You are to be getting away from her," Brother pursued when he walked up to them... Gippal had yet to remove his arm.

"Speak in the Mother Tongue, or not at all," Gippal said, sounding both pained and disdainful. "Your accent is atrocious."

"_I don't see your arm moving_," Brother replied, switching to Al Bhed.

"_Fine_," Gippal said, apparently deciding against confrontation. He removed his arm.

"_Well, here we are, one big happy family_..." he said apparently trying to break the ice or something. He was ignored as Brother took his sister's arm and jerked her away from the young man who was showing an inappropriate interest in his baby sister and glared at Gippal.

"_Rikku_!" he said urgently. "_Big news. The old man is planning on hosting a battle tournament here at Home and he intends on giving you away to the winner_!"

"Yeah, nice timing on that one," Rikku replied in mainlander, poking him in the chest. "That news would have come in handy, like, five hours ago."

"_Oh_..." Brother said, looking a little put-out. "_Do you need a champion? As your older brother I could_--"

"What?! No way!" Rikku said. "I'll be fighting them all myself of course. And even if I weren't there's no way I'd ask you to be my champion... I mean, you'd get the crap kicked out of you and then I'd be saddled with a complete wimp for a husband."

Rikku then added as an after thought

"Then I'd have to ship him to the farplane in peices for hurting my brother."

"Wow," Gippal commented from the sidelines. "You two Cid's kids sibs might both be a wrench shy of a set, but no one can say that you don't have the whole 'family solidarity' thing going on. I'm touched."

"In the head," Rikku agreed, unable to let that one slide by unremarked.

"_Who would you pick if you had to choose a champion_?" Brother pursued.

"Oh, probably Tidus," Rikku said off-handedly.

"_Tidus_..." Brother growled. "_Tidus! Why must I always loose to hiiiiiiim_!"

And he was dancing around and yelling dramatically in Al Bhed. People had stopped what they were doing to watch the weird man in the street curse in Al Bhed. Tidus and Yuna didn't speak the language so they had no idea what he was talking about.

"Whatsa matter with him?" Tidus asked in blank confusion.

"He was dropped on his head as a small child," Gippal replied.

"Hey!" Rikku said, immediately leaping to her brother's defense. "He may be an idiot, but he's still my brother... only I am allowed to say things like that about him." In one lightning-quick movement she had Gippal by the earring in his left ear and had hauled his tall, lanky form down to her level. "Got it?"

"Owowowowowow..." Gippal said, unable to nod his head. "Got it, now lemme go!"

Rikku gave Gippal's ear a final twist and then abruptly turned away, releasing him and then posed with her arms behind her head and her hip cocked like she had nothing to do with what just happened.

"Yeah, whatever..." she said.

Gippal rubbed his injured ear and watched her retreating backside. Brother seemed to take exception to his all too appreciative gaze for he glared at Gippal once again.

"You are to be staying away from my sister," he informed the Al Bhed interloper.

Gippal promptly rolled his eyes.

"The day I start taking orders from you is the day they'll be laying me on my Sending Pyre," Gippal replied.

"Hey, Yunie, Tidus! Are you two coming or not?" Rikku called back from where she walked ahead. The two answered with a chorus of "coming!" and picked up the pace after her.

"Am I invited?" Brother said.

"This is a strategy meeting, Guardians only!" Rikku called over her shoulder.

"How about me?" Gippal called as they walked out of sight. No reply was carried back to him.

* * *

**Yay update! Please reveiw!**


	8. Strategy Session

Dinner was an informal affair aboard Rikku's airship. Al Bhed cuisine was ordered for delivery from one of the many services offered in the tiny business-villages that were set up around the airship hubs and the strategy meeting was begun in earnest. The four former Guardians were far more aware of Rikku's strengths and weaknesses in battle than anyone else would be, no naturally the discussion centered around old battles. She'd be fighting the next matches without dresspheres, or as Rikku kept calling it "old school."

"I think whatever claw you use," Lulu said around a bite of flatbread smeared with some strange spicy Al Bhed sauce. "You should have Sense equipped on it."

"Ya," Wakka seconded quickly. "The object in dese fights, I t'ink, won't be beating them, but curbing your strength so dat ya don' go overkill on them all. They'll be a lot harder to resuscitate and heal after you beat them if you go overkill."

"We wouldn't want you to kill them for real," Lulu remarked. Rikku nodded emphatically in agreement.

"I'll be standing by ready to cast Arise and Curaga," Yuna added, showing support in her own way.

In their minds it wasn't so must a question of whether or not Rikku would win, they had no doubt of her success for they had all fought beside her in the battles that changed the face of the world forever and they _knew _how well she could fight. The question for all of them was in how much of her real strength she should hold back and still win as efficiently as possible.

"Too bad I can't use Godhand," Rikku said, a little wistfully.

"You'd definitely kill someone wit' dat, ya!" Wakka said, laughing.

All of the former Guardians who had fought their way along the Final Pilgrimage had kept their Celestial Weapons as souvenirs of the journey. The weapons, invested with so much of their love and strength, were more like old friends than inanimate objects. Wakka and Lulu had theirs on the mantelpiece over the fireplace in their home. Yuna's Nirvana and Tidus' Caldabolg were crossed over the threshold of thier hut. Rikku kept her's hovering weightlessly behind a forcefeild on display in her room on the airship. Each of the former Guardians confessed that they all carried the Crests with them.

"True," she said ruefully. "A pity; the damage Godhand can deal out made even Sin sit up and take notice."

"It's the same for all of our Celestial Weapons," Yuna said, sounding a little nostalgic. Oh, none of them would go back to those dark and dangerous times when there was peril and sorrow around every corner, where Yuna was expected to sacrifice herself for the good of all of Spira, but they never forgot that there had been good times mixed in with all of the sorrows and tragedies.

"You should turn in early young lady," Lulu said, sounding like a chiding mother. "You have to be up at dawn for the tournament."

"Yes mum," Rikku said, laughing lightly before she took the good advice offered and packed herself off to bed.


	9. And So It Begins

The sands were cool in the watery-pink light of dawn. Rikku sat on a bench outside of a perfect circle, shaded by a copper and yellow striped awning for later in the day when the heat rose. Yuna, Tidus, Lulu, Wakka and Brother all stood behind her.

She wasn't wearing her dressphere, instead Rikku had been consigned to civilian clothes for the duration of the match. Even with this limitation, she still managed to live up to the Al Bhed woman's motto of "If ya got it... flaunt it!". She was wearing a pair of tight leather-and-khaki short-shorts with an extra dagger strapped to her left thigh and a belt full of empty alchemist pouches in her hip, comfy shoes, and a halter-top that was an excersize in brevity. Her on-hand was encased in a plain, serviceable claw.

"Do these people think she's doing this to amuse them?" Lulu wondered aloud as she gazed around her.

Ringed around the fighting circle (at a safe distance) were... spectators. It was a huge crowd of Al Bhed, men, women, even little kids all murmuring amongst themselves in excitement. They were slowly starting to fill up the mostly finished stands of the blitzball stadium so that everyone could have a good veiw of the fight.

When the first hint of that red disk of sun appeared over the horizon Cid walked out on to the sands and raised his arms for silence.

"Y'all know why we're here," he said without preamble. "I want a good clean fight. Let's get it on!"

_((A.N. Am I the only one who thinks that Cid looks and sounds like Judge Mills Lane from Celebrity Deathmatch?))_

Rikku sighed and stood up.

"Let's get this over with," she muttered, rolling her eyes.

Her first opponent for the day, she didn't even know his name, was predictably Al Bhed. By the grease stains under his fingers, she judged him for a mechanic rather than an Alchemist or a Mix-smith.

"First fight, Rikku and Telk!" Cid called.

"Rikku," Telk said, almost stammering in his earnestness. "I just want you to know that if I win, I'm going to treat you real good, okay?"

Rikku gave him one of her "aww-ing" looks. That was sweet of him.

_That's so cute_, she thought to herself. _He actually thinks he's going to win, too. Awwwwww._

"I'm really sorry that I'm going to have to do this to you," she said sincerely. They took a fighting stance.

A nearby Al Bhed drafted for the purpose rang a gong and the fight was begun.

With a snake-quick movement that was so practiced she didn't even really think about it before she did it, Rikku darted in and stole from him. It was a battle, and Rikku stole during battles, that was the way it had always been; that had been her function.

_Not bad_, she thought, storing the three small-bombs away in one of her empty pouches.

Then came the tough part, she looked at him carefully, using the claw's Sense to get a feel for how much of a fight he had in him. Not much. She'd be gentle with him.

He moved in to take a swing at her, Rikku with her usual speed (she didn't even need Haste for this one) stepped in on his inside, caught his arm with her free-hand and elbowed him deftly under the chin. He toppled backwards, hitting the sands, and didn't move a muscle. Rikku carefully nudged him with the toe of her shoe, checking to make sure he wasn't faking so as to catch her off guard. The Sense monitor on her claw said that he was down.

"Mediiiiic!" she yelled in Al Bhed.

An instant later two Al Bhed doctors with a stretcher slung between them came and removed his comatose form from the ring.

"Rikku wins!" Cid acknowledged.

The crowd cheered a little. There were murmurs in Al Bhed of what an efficient little fighter she was and how it was no wonder she'd fought Sin and survived. Telk had nearly won last years fire-dance so he was accounted to be a fighter with some skill. The three Guardians along the sidelines exchanged a look; it was hard to believe that they were impressed by that fight.

"Round two, Rikku and Kaldin... commence!"

Another young man stepped into the ring and the gong sounded. Rikku darted in and stole. A bomb core was added to her growing collection. The young man, another mechanic to guess by the life-force in him, seemed to be waiting for her to come to him. He stood there, weaving a little on the sands. Rikku darted in again and he went down.

"This could get monotonous," Lulu noted.

"Maybe we should make her tie one hand behind her back," Tidus added jokingly as they watched the medics tote another poor sap off the sands.

The third followed much the same as the first two had. Rikku came back for some water after the fourth.

"You're making some good time out there," Wakka coached, handing her a water-bottle and towel to wipe off the sweat. "But I'd like to see more consistency in your form."

"How many more?" she grumbled.

At least the creature museum had been interesting; the feinds had been tough and weird... this was actually kind of _boring_.

"The sun's just barely up over the horizon," Yuna chided her.

"You're not getting tired already are you?" Tidus said worriedly.

"Of course not!" Rikku said scornfully.

She adjusted the different objects she'd stolen from the contestants into the sections of her pouches where they apparently went and then walked back out onto the sands.

"Round Six... Rikku and Voud. Commence!" Another gong.

_Ah! An Alchemist_! Riku thought, perking up.

Good steals from this one then. She darted in for a steal, but he moved out of the way. Of course he would, can't have the enemy taking away his only weapons after all. Rikku tried a Mug.

_Yay_! she thought happily as she made off with five fire gems. She loved those! Unfortunately, while Rikku had been distracted Voud had been able to mix up a bomb-mixer. He lobbed it at her.

_Brimstone_, she analyzed as it hit her, washing over her with the milder heat of a stoked furnace (as opposed to the melting eat of a volcano).

Bomb-fragment and frag-grenade mix by the feel of it. Cheap variety, and at his level... _not _very effective. She let it wash over her with a small gasp at the sting, let it do whatever damage it would. Not much. She dusted herself off when the sand cleared and nodded to her opponent.

"Not bad," she acknowledged to him with a slight inclination of her head. "But let me just show you how it's done."

Rikku was so practiced by now from wearing her Alchemist dressphere that she could mix one handed... by feel! She deftly pulled out a fire gem and a frag grenade and with one hand spliced them together, shook three times to mix it up, then lobbed it at her opponent.

**BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!**

_Abadon Flame_, she thought with satisfaction. She loved that one.

"Mediiiic!" she called, because he was down.

"Rikku!" Yuna called chidingly from the sidelines as she rushed over to the medic's tent placed for the purpose of healing up the victims... er, combatants. Rikku looked over to see what the fuss was and noted that her cousin was quickly casting Arise.

"Oooops," she thought, feeling instantly guilty. "Overkill."

One medic was pouring a Pheonix Down down his throat, but it didn't seem to have any effect. Yunie cast her Arise, but the young man still didn't stir. Rikku's stomach clenched with dread, she hoped she hadn't killed him for real! She rushed over, mixing two Pheonix Downs together as she ran. When she reached the sidelines she hurriedly lobbed the Final Pheonix at him.

"That's done it," a nearby doctor said, with relief. He was holding the young man's wrist and checking his vitals. Rikku gasped with relief.

"Thank the Ancestors!" she said, holding a fist to her chest in worry. The young man, she hadn't even caught his name, groaned and twitched a little.

_I'll send him some flowers later_, she promised herself as she heard the next match called.

* * *

**Just a quick two-fer. I decided to base the fighting style in the story loosely on actual fighting style of The Game (you just lost) I hope you've enjoyed it so far. Please reveiw and tell me what you think.**


	10. Steelwind

_Hey look, a veteran_! she thought, perking a little in surprise.

He was much older than her, some grey showing around his temples and had three long parallel scars running down the right side of his face from cheekbone to jaw. For all of that, he was still _quite _handsome, with a wry sort of kindness to his face and very intelligent eyes. His weapon of choice was a mighty double-ended sword-staff.

"Round ten, Rikku and Gelnin Steelwind... commence!"

Gelnin Steelwind? She'd heard of him! He was the famous warrior from Steelwind Clan; the one that single-handedly beat back a swarm of fiends in a level three sand storm! He was a living _legend _among their people.

They both bowed respectfully at each other. Around them the crowd was going wild. Most of the spectators were chanting "Steelwind! Steelwind! Steelwind!" for that was his title among the Al Bhed. Her four Guardian friends staunchly cheered for her and she waved back at them a little. She couldn't blame the stands for cheering for him, the man _was _a legend after all.

"Are you... um," Rikku started hesitantly as they both weighed and measured each other with their eyes. "Are you sure you want to be doing this? I mean, you do have to get married at the end if you win, y'know?"

Steelwind grinned a little and said

"I've been fighting battles since before you were in diapers, I figured that it's time I retired and found myself a cute wife. I got a good look at you fighting one day and I think we'll suit."

She blushed a little, flattered that such a famous warrior found her cute, but...

"Well, sir, I'm afraid that retiring just isn't anywhere on my agenda. I don't want to settle down just yet, or ever, perhaps."

"That's alright," he said. "I'm not much for staying in one place, truth be known. We can travel on your airship."

Rikku had to admit that the proposition didn't sound too bad, but she still wasn't certain she wanted to marry a stranger (much less an older man) no matter how famous he was among her people.

"You have to win the fight first," she pointed out, with her usual cheerful attitude. He nodded at her and they began the fight in earnest.

Steelwind was a true veteran, which meant that he knew exactly how to start out a battle the right way. He immediately tossed out a lunar curtain for Protect and then a chocobo feather for Haste. Rikku smiled, the first moves were made. She wasn't going to soil the man's dignity by stealing from him, that would communicate something of a slap in the face; like saying "I don't take you seriously enough to attack or prepare while I have the chance" and that was fine for those fresh-faced greenhorns, but not for a warrior of _his _caliber.

"How about a round of Rikku surprise?" she suggested, splicing a grenade and an antidote together in weak mix for a simple blaster mine. He might be a veteran, but she still didn't want to go overkill on him. She wouldn't be able to face Auron on the Farplane if she sent the old man in ahead of his time for just wanting a cute wife.

The curtain took most of the damage and her Sensor told her that he still had plenty of fight left in him. She smiled, a real fight at last!

Steelwind moved next, trying Threaten on her to see if he could paralyze her with fear. No dice, she was immune.

"Nice try though," she encouraged with a smile.

Steelwind smiled a little in return. This was less like a fight, and more like a conversation between two old battle comrades that had both seen much and were meeting one another in the back of a bar for drinks and to share stories about battles passed and feinds fought.

He attacked in earnest. Rikku brought her claw up to block a swing from one of his blades in passing. She wasn't quite fast enough to dart out of the way of his back-swing however and took a hit from the blade on the other end. Rikku easily dodged and weaved in the patterns of the Whispering Sands dance when he tried an overhead strike and he responded just as easily with the counter from the Blast Winds dance. Her counter-hit didn't land. Impasse.

_He actually landed a hit on me_, Rikku thought, rubbing the back of her head as they separated for another pass. He was pretty spry for an older guy.

They rushed at each other, claws and blades flashing in the rising heat of the sun. The blade and part of the shaft of the staff weapon grated along her claw when he thrust in, going for a middle strike, and she dodged and blocked. She spun, dancing along the shaft of his weapon to bring herself in close then whipped around to nail him in the back of the neck with her claw. She was careful not to use too much strength, just enough to bring him down.

But she'd forgotten about the Protect.

He rolled out of her reach (still conscious), casting out a megapotion in the process, and faced her again, fully healed. Rikku paused to mix up a firegem and a soft for a firestorm. It did some damage, but every hit seemed to energize him in some way, too late Rikku realized her mistake... now he had access to his signature attack, the Blade Flurry.

His blade-staff was held out before him and Rikku sensed a gathering of some kind of force. Abruptly, his weapon began to spin furiously in his grip, sparks and power flew upwards, then abruptly paused and crashed downwards and out, crescendo-ing over her in a wave of force. Her own life-force abruptly dipped. It hadn't been enough to bring her to her knees or anything but certainly enough to advise her to quit playing around.

Rikku reconsidered her strategy. They still weren't evenly matched; Rikku was by far the stronger of the two, but he was a canny fighter and she really didn't want to have to hurt him seriously. That put her at something of a disadvantage because she had to carefully horde her strength and he could attack with impunity. So. Something else, then.

She was reluctant to use Haste because she'd always felt that it gave her an unfair advantage, she was built for speed in the first place, but in this case she was willing to consider it a compliment to her opponent. She pulled out a chocobo feather and felt the power and energy rush through her. She whipped in and struck before he even seemed to note that she'd moved, he'd blocked most of her strike but some of it had landed and he knelt down, damaged.

"Sorry about this!" she called, and lobbed a simple grenade at him to finish him off. He evaded and countered. Wounded to critical condition, he, strangely, didn't bother to pull out another healing potion but instead held his staff weapon vertically before him. The sky abruptly darkened and the sands around them turned red.

Flaming orbs of brimstone shot down from the skies pummeling her like unruly bread dough. Rikku took some hits. It still wasn't enough to bring her to her knees but she was hurting.

_Time to end this_, she thought, regretfully.

Play time had been fun, but...

She darted in again landing a direct hit against his lowered guard. She compensated for the curtain but found, to her chagrin, that it had worn off. Still even with the extra strength she managed to avoid overkilling the older gentleman and he slumped forward and fell against the sands, defeated.

"Mediiic!" she called. She strolled over to Yuna for some healing while they toted Steelwind off the sands to the medics tent.

"Quite the fight," Lulu noted.

"I almost didn't want to beat him," Rikku confessed. At her cousin's strange look Rikku explained

"Not because I wanted to marry him or anything, but because he's an Al Bhed hero. Even I was raised on stories about the famous Gelnin Steelwind and his battles against the Yevonite (no offense to present company) raiding parties, and how he defended our people against fiend attacks. I didn't want everyone to see him fall or be defeated."

"Heroes are still simple flesh and blood," Yuna said gently as she deftly healed her cousin. "Just look at us. Besides, I'm sure that if he were to have anyone defeat him he'd probably want it to be you. You're an Al Bhed hero too, after all."

"Oh yeah," she said. "I forgot about that."

"Dey're callin' da next match, ya," Wakka informed her.

"Round eleven... Rikku and Westet... commence!" her father called out.

Rikku glanced at the next combabtabt and summed him up easily within that glance. Greenhorn. He looked clueless, what was a boy who barely seemed to know how to put on armor doing in the middle of a fighting tournament facing off against her? She sighed a little. Wakka had been right... sheer numbers. Her father must have rounded up every warm body of the male persuasion he could find just to wear her down.

One hit. Rikku forgot that the chocobo feather was still doing its work so she darted in there faster than he could see, let alone prepare for, and he was down and out with a blow to the temple.

The gong was struck to signal the end of the match, about a minute after it had been struck to signal the beginning of the match. There were some laughs, but mostly exclamations of surprise that it had been concluded so quickly. Rikku had to agree with the general sentiment that the poor boy hadn't had a chance. It wasn't bragging; she was just that good.

The next three matches went much the same as the one after Gelnin. Out of a sense of pity she'd let them have the first move so that they could at least attempt to prepare or get one hit in... but the battle was a forgone conclusion and she felt that they both knew it.

_Let's see, what am I up to? Fifteen?_ she wondered to herself as the medics toted her latest combatant off the sands.

The sun was nearing the noon point, the hottest part of the day and the heat was begining to make her cranky. Plus she was getting hungry as well, not a good combination; she'd start making mistakes that way. Besides all of that, Al Bhed traditionally napped or rested at this part of the day.

Indeed, the spectators were already beginning to drift off in knots or ones and twos for their own lunch and rest in their nice, cooled houses.

"Hey pops!" Rikku called over. "Give it a rest, I'm starved!"

Cid looked over at the next contestant who nodded his head eagrely, possibly hungry but more probably eagre to delay his inevitable ass-kicking. Rikku could understand that; no-one wanted to lose face by chickening out, but it was okay that she was going to defeat them because like Yuna said she was an Al Bhed hero. It was okay to loose against a hero, but no man worth his salt wanted to be known as a coward.

Rikku was trying to go easy on them, but she knew she'd scared some of the poor young men when she'd accidentally nearly killed that one guy and then promptly taken out a a living legend of the Al Bhed directly after.

_Pops sure isn't doing me any favors_, she thought to herself.

If she couldn't find her nice, only-slightly-epic romance that she was looking for and decided she wanted to look among her own people for a likely match, she was going to have a heck of a time finding one! If the boys she fought in the tournament didn't hold a grudge in one form or another she'd be very surprised, and even of the ones she wouldn't be fighting, Rikku had the feeling that the tales of her fighting prowess were going to grow exponentialy the farther they traveled across the sands. It would be difficult to find a young man willing to date a legend.

_Definitely not doing me any favors!_ she thought shaking her head a little as she strolled off the fighting sands and headed with her friends back to her airship for lunch.

* * *

**This is not the last we shall see of Gelnin Steelwind. Gippal's back in the next chapter (which happens to be one of my favorites) I figure the boy could use some competition for a change (is it just me or does it always seem like Rikku's the one who gets jealous and insecure?). So look forward to a few laughs. Please review.**


	11. Manners Maketh Men

Back on her nice cool airship Lulu agreed to prepare a light lunch in the tiny kitchen/bar just off the cafe area on the ship. No-one ever felt particularly hungry in the heat of the day, but even so, it was important that Rikku get her vitamins. She had the rest of the fighting to do when she returned to the sands in two hours.

"Hey!" she said, yelping in surprise when she saw an unexpected visitor had made himself at home on **_HER_** airship without so much as a by-your-leave-miss-Rikku.

"Who invited _you _here?" she demanded.

"Nice digs, Cid's Girl," he said, not bothering to answer her question.

He had his arms casually up behind his head staring out the nearby back of windows that looked off the side deck with his feet up on the nearby table and the chair tipped back on its hind legs... acting for all the world like he owned the place.

"No-one gave you permission to be here," Rikku pursued.

"Hey, we're all friends here," Gippal said, waving an arm at her. "You tell Paine to drop by any time she wants."

"You're not Paine," Rikku pointed out. "And I didn't extend the invitation to you."

"Now now, don't be grouchy. I know it's almost time for little Rikku's nap but--"

Rikku internally debated the emotional satisfaction she might derive from kicking the chair legs out from under him and tossing him out over the side of her airship into the harbor below. But then she remembered that Gippal wasn't a very good swimmer, and she wasn't actually out to kill someone that day.

"Don't you have your _own _airship to infect with your presence?" Rikku said pointedly. "Why are you here messing about on mine? You'd better not have touched anything!"

"Relax," he said. "I can think of parts _other _than your ship that I'd rather be touching."

He raised an eyebrow suggestively at her. Rikku rolled her eyes at that and posed in her casual manner hip cocked with her arms behind her head, ostentatiously ignoring him.

"Yeah, whatever," she said with off-handed dismissal.

She and Lulu walked behind the counter to the tiny kitchenette/bar just off the lounge and started prepping ingredients for lunch. Lulu set Rikku to chopping up vegetables and meats for kabobs while she started making the sauce.

"You look very domestic Rikku, it's quite fetching actually. The apron's a nice touch," Gipal said smoothly, walking over to the counter and sitting himself down at the bar separating the kitchen from the lounge. He was pouring on the charm.

"You're welcome to come over and cook for me anytime," he added, as if he were conferring a great favor. He tilted his chair back and set his feet up on the nearest flat surface.

"I'd poison your food," she muttered.

"Of course, I'd have to insist you bring that apron... all other clothing is optional."

"Hold it dere, bruddah," Wakka said in a warning tone, rising from where he'd settled himself at a nearby table. Tidus stood up right along with him and said

"Hey Riks,"Tidus called casually. "Want me ta, ya know..._ take care_ of this guy?"

He had one hand drifting to where he kept his Crest and the other hand ready to sign out the Sun Sigil into the air, summoning up Caladbolg. One of the advantages of owning a Celestial Weapon was that it was _always _a part of them. At need it could materialize at thier side with little more than a word and a gesture.

"Don't bother," she said to Tidus. "He's like a cockroach, you think you get rid of him and he pops up in your cereal box."

Undaunted by the protective ire of two legendary Final Guardians, and one kitchen knife wielding Al Bhed hero, Gippal continued with his shameless flirting.

"Relax you two, she's crazy about me," Gippal reassured them both. The two blitzballers exchanged a dubious glance.

"Watch," Gippal said confidently. He called over to Rikku

"Make me a sandwich, woman!"

She turned to Gippal, pointing her very large and scary-looking kitchen knife at him.

"Just remember which of the two of us is slicing and dicing here," she warned him. "Keep it up and you'll wind up on the menu.

Rikku caught the gleam in his eye that said he wasn't going to let _that _one slide. She could see the "baby, I can be your main course anytime" or something along those lines being born on his lips so she quickly added a menacing

"Or rather, _parts _of you will be."

"I love it when you talk dirty to me," he replied, grinning unrepentantly.

Rikku made a sound somewhere between a choke and a snarl, gripping the knife in her hand and very obviously gauging the distance between the two of them to see if she could make a throw without hitting her other guests. Lulu very calmly put a restraining hand over Rikku's and said

"Don't."

Rikuu made a frustrated face, and Lulu smiled slightly; it wasn't exactly what you could call a _nice _smile.

"This is how you do it," she said in a teacherly tone.

She waved a hand in a practiced, almost off-hand, gesture.

BZZZZZT!

There came the cackling roar of electricity singeing the air.

"Yeeoow!" Gippal yelped as the blast from the Thundar spell that Lulu fired off shocked him. He started suddenly at the pain buzzing along his nerves and the chair he was sitting in tipped over and dumped him unceremoniously on the ground.

Yuna was trying to diplomatically hide her symptoms of mirth and Lulu looked merely pleased with herself, but Rikku and Tidus were laughing out loud and Wakka was grinning.

"Ha-ha!" Rikku sing-songed. "Serves you right."

"What are you talking about?" he gasped, trying to quickly recover his aplomb as he climbed to his feet. "That was the sparks of our love."

"I am amazed," Lulu commented dryly.

"At my rapier wit?" Gippal said, digging up a charming grin, with effort.

"That anyone can actually sling out that tripe with a straight face," she corrected.

Rikku started spearing the bits of meat and vegetables for the kabobs as Lulu readied her firaga spell to sear it well. Gippal seemed caught at a loss for once, so Rikku followed up quickly on Lulu's victory by pushing a plate of fresh greens that she'd just diced and mixed with vinegar and oil at him over the counter.

"If you're going to stay and freeload," she said. "At least make yourself useful. Set this on the table."

"Since when am I your servant?" he said, affronted at being made to work during lunch. "Although, if you're looking for a bedroom servant, I'm very well qualified for the position. In fact I know many positions..." He waggled a brow at her.

Lulu paused in the midst of her firaga spell, shocked, and Yuna's jaw dropped.

"That's it," Tidus said, flatly.

He started reaching for his crest; this was defiantely a situation that called for a sword. Gippal was saved by the bell. The ships com-system chirped, announcing that a visitor had arrived.

"I wasn't expecting anyone..." Rikku said, mystified. "I wonder who it is." She ordered the Ghiki to give her a visual and a holo-screen popped out of a comsphere set into a nearby table. It was the veteran she'd fought earlier that day.

"Permission to come aboard!" the slightly rough and raspy voice of Gelnin Steelwind said, into the com.

"Oh! Uh, permission granted," Rikku said.

It escaped no-one's notice that Rikku put a hand absently to her hair to straighten it and checked her apron quickly as she keyed in the codes to unlock the main entrance to the Ghiki.

Yuna and Lulu exchanged a surprised look as Yuna, _scandalized_, mouthed the words "_older man_!" behind her hand to Lulu.

"We're about to have lunch in the lounge," she added to Steelwind over the com. "Just follow the maintenence bot."

She tapped in a few more commands, obviously addressed to said bot and then turned back to the meal.

"I thought you said this was a closed meeting between Guardians, to discuss strategy," Gippal said, sounding for all the world like he was put-out by Rikku's casual invitation of a near-stranger to eat lunch with her and her friends.

"At least he _asked_," Rikku pointed out sharply. "Unlike _some _people I could mention, who just stoll up in my ship unannounced, Mister Steelwind is a gentleman. He has manners."

"Pfft," Gippal said, making a noise halfway between a grunt and a snort as he rolled his eyes.

manners ain't everything y'know," he grumbled.

"Manners maketh a man," Rikku replied primly, turning back to her food preparation and ignoring him.


	12. No Confidence Like the Middle Aged

Moments later the lounge doors slid open to reveal the tall, broad-shouldered form of the famous Al Bhed warrior. He had two wine-skins slung over his shoulder on a string and he moved into the room with the confidence and powerful grace that came only to the middle-aged (men who had nothing to prove). He bowed to Rikku and said with a smile

"I didn't want to come empty-handed, so I brought a guesting gift," he said. "I hope you don't mind."

He handed her the two wineskins and she set them in the nearby fridge to cool.

Not at all," Rikku dimpled at him. "I didn't have much besides water to serve with lunch so you chose well. Whose vintage, by the way?"

"Senag's," he replied, automatically moving over to help her with the plates to serve lunch.

Rikku's eyebrows rose in surprise; Senag and those of his family were very well known for the abilities at brewing and making spirits. If they weren't Alchemists, most of them had a brewery or a vinter's house somewhere. Their wines were particularly sought after, and one made by the master of the house himself sold for quite the large sum of gil.

"But--" she started to protest at the extravagance.

"It's a gift," he said, cutting her off. "Besides, Senag and I go back a ways. He's always pushing some of his latest swill off on me."

Rikku joined him in his chuckle and said

"Well if you're going to insist then I won't argue with you. I hope you don't mind if I save it though. I can't afford to be drunk on the sands when I go to my next fight."

"That might be something to see," Gippal said, moving closer to join the conversation.

He squeezed in on Rikku's other side and took the other plate from her hand to bring it to the table.

"Maybe I'd join in the fun then, we could decide the winner by a drinking contest."

Rikku missed the knowing glance that passed between Yuna and Lulu and Wakka and Tidus at the young mechanic's obvious attempt to come between Rikku and the new arrival.

"Someone would have to be well and truly sotted to go to the altar with _you_," Rikku said repressively.

"Ah, Young Gippal," Steelwind, said, surprised at noting him. Gippal inclined his head in reply (with almost grudging respect to the senior warrior).

"Sir Steelwind," he replied, his tone even.

"You two know each other?" Rikku said curiously.

"He's from my clan," Gippal replied off-handedly. "We've met."

"As I recall you were quite the troublemaker," Steelwind said, smiling a little.

"You'll have to tell me all about it sometime," Rikku said, clearly delighted at the prospect of having some dirt on the young Machine Faction Leader.

"But where are my manners," she said a moment later. "I haven't introduced everyone." Rikku took a formal pose and said

"Sir Gelnin of Steelwind Clan, I make you known to High Summoner Yuna, Guardian Tidus, Guardian Lulu and Guardian Wakka."

"A great honor," the old warrior said, extending his hand to Yuna. Yuna, uncertain of what the extended hand meant, followed the only custom she knew of and bowed formally over the hand. Rikku didn't bother to correct her cousin and tell her that the Al Bhed clasped hands in greeting. Introductions over with, Rikku went back to preparing their lunch.

She hefted a platter full of fixings for her "assemble-it-yourself sandwiches" in preparation to carry it to the table when she was intercepted deftly by Steelwind, who took her platter and the tray of newly finished kabobs.

"I'll get this," he assured her. "You go ahead and sit down. I'm sure you must be tired from all of that fighting."

"Not really," she said, brightly. "But thanks." Rikku plopped down and sprawled bonelessly into a nearby chair, followed by Lulu who sat with more decorum. Unnoticed by Rikku, another look passed between Lulu and Yuna. The two older Guardians flicked a glance between Gippal, who was looking most put-out by this sudden and unexpected interloper, and Steelwind who had just deftly strolled in and stole Gippal's thunder.

Things could get interesting.

"That was a good fight," Rikku said as an ice-breaker when they'd all sat at the table for lunch.

Wakka and Tidus dug right in, thier appetites undiminished even for having spent the afternoon as a spectator rather than as a player in the event. Yuna and Lulu ate at a more leisurely pace, more interested in watching the interaction and the mood of the conversation than eating. Gippal sat himself down on the left side of Rikku while Gelnin, as the guest, got the place of honor at her right.

"It's no wonder you're a hero among the Al Bhed," Rikku continued. "You're very strong."

"You're a deft fighter yourself," he replied, and then his look turned shrewd as he added

"Especially when you're holding back your true strength."

"Oh, ah... You, um, caught that, did you?" she said, looking embarrassed. "I hope you're not offended, I mean, it wasn't anything against you I just didn't want to hurt you too badly."

"I'm not offended at all, in fact I'm honored to have fought you in an open match," Steelwind said. "The mark of a true warrior in battle is not in whether he can go overkill in all of her battles, but in how she conserves her strength to use just enough energy to defeat her enemy without destroying him. You are very skilled Rikku."

"Thanks," she said, blushing. Gippal covertly rolled his eyes and decided to jump into the conversation.

"Too bad you missed the fight with Vegnagun," he said, subtly reminding everyone at the table that _he _had been there for that fight. "Now there was an enemy you could go all-out against."

"Says the boy who needed a nap," Rikku muttered.

"Hey, I fought it too," Gippal quickly interjected.

"I regret that I missed out on all of the fun," Steelwind said easily. "But I'm in no hurry to see the farplane, and I had other pressing matters on the home sands to attend to."

"Like what?" Gippal asked, sounding suspicious rather than curious.

"There had been rumors of an ancient and powerful feind re-awakened and roaming the Sanubia Desert. Even our oldest records mentioned it only briefly... Angra-Mainyu?"

"Oh yeah!" Rikku chirped cheerfully. "You don't need to worry about that anymore, Yunie and I, and Paine too, we all took care of it."

"So I had heard," Steelwind said, smiling slightly. "It had tried to attack one of the Firewind Clan's settlements in the Eastern Sands and I fought it there, to a stand-still, but did not defeat it."

"It's super-attack really packs a whollop," Rikku agreed sympathetically. "And then there's all of those status effects, not to mention the thing kept casting magic spells at us. I'm amazed we made it too. Even with the three of us, it was quite a fight. I'm shocked you went up against it on your own."

"Kelgin the Caster and Sil, were with me," he said modestly.

Those names belonged to two other well-known Al Bhed fighters, Kelgin specialized in black-magery and Alchemy, and Sil was an all-around, meaning that he took care of in-between stuff like stealing and healing. He turned to Gippal

"My condolences on what happened to your camp out in Bikanel. I heard that many of your workers died in the attack."

"They know the risks when they sign on," Gippal replied. "We do what we can to take care of them, but no-one can predict when something like that'll pop up. I was already on the Farplane by then so there wouldn't have been anything I could have done about it anyway."

"This Vegnagun sounds like an interesting fiend," Steelwind commented. "An enormous machina possessed by a thousand year old spirit of vengeance."

"Interesting's one way to put it," Gippal said. "Very tough's another. I should know because I was there."

"So was I," Rikku immediately protested. "And let's not forget that it was Yunie who thought of a way to beat it."

Yuna wisely stayed out of the discussion; she had spent enough time around boys and young men, the Besaid Aurochs being among them, to know not to interfere in the not-so-subtle contests of one-upmanship that went on when two guys were in competition over the same woman. Steelwind, at least, seemed to feel that there was no real competition between them, but Gippal was very obviously threatened by this older, stronger, more famous interloper in what Gippal had obviously decided was his rightful territory.

"I stand educated, " Steelwind said smoothly, with a polite inclination of his head at Lady Yuna and Rikku.

Certainly in a verbal match between them there was no contest, Steelwind had a good twenty years of practice on Gippal and was far more deft at holding a serene mask in place and keeping his temper. Gippal might have youth and looks on his side but it appeared he was going to need more than a little charm and a flirtatious demeanor to win this round or any following it.

"Your airship is lovely," Steelwind said. "An impressive machina, and I heard you built most of it yourself."

"I did do almost all of the work on it," she said, pride lacing her voice. "She's my baby; top to bottom, stem to stern."

"I helped," Gippal added in quickly.

"You did not," Rikku argued. "You mostly hung around making a nuisance of yourself and getting in the way."

"What about all the advice I gave you?" he argued in return.

"Just because you give me advice doesn't mean I'm going to listen to it," Rikku replied.

"See, now there's your problem right there," Gippal said easily, once again dominating her space with his large presence and his casual touches. "You're not utilizing me to my full capacity."

"Gippal, you are absolutely right," Rikku smiled brightly up at him, even as she brushed his hand off her shoulder.

"Here, go clean this," she said disparagingly, shoving a dirty plate at him. The rest chuckled at the nonplussed look on his face.

"This has all been fun, but I'm for a nap," Rikku said as the last of a very pleasant lunch was finished off and the food made people sleepy. "I'll see everyone down at the sands."

"Thank-you Rikku, for hosting me for lunch," Steelwind said, rising at the not-subtle dismissal for everyone else to find somewhere else to go and sleep (with the exception of her passengers, of course). "I hope we do this again sometime."

"Sure, I'm here for another two days at least," Rikku said brightly.

The lounge was vacated as the unexpected guests found their ways to their own places for rest and ones staying aboard the airship went to their cabins to nap. Rikku, as the mistress of the airship, naturally got the captains cabin, the largest of them all. She settled in to sleep off the food and the heat of the afternoon.

* * *

**I have to confess, there is a small part of me that ***blushes in embarrassment* **wants to see Rikku end up with the cool older man. She's not going to of course, since this is a Rikku/Gippal fic, but... It must be just frustrated Aurrikku poking out. Geeze, anyone would think i was some kind of lolicom or something, but there's just something that's almost irresistable about it. Hey, for anyone who wants to do a crack! pairing, someone should write a fic in which she ends up with Rin! hee hee hee. I think a little competition will be good for Gippal.  
**

**Thanks to everyone who wrote me a reveiw, there was one in particular that has actually helped me get past the huge block that i've had for months on this fic (I couldn't figure out what was wrong with it)**


	13. Sweet Fantasy

**Warning, some adult content ahead.**

* * *

_Her fingertips trembled on his skin as he slid his rough work-callused hands over her body. His touch, smooth and rough and warm, seemed to burn and rasp along her already sensitized skin. Her hands ran up his chest, over his shoulders and down the skin of his back as her eyes fluttered shut in pleasure. She felt his breath hot over her ear whispering things she couldn't understand but seemed to know all the same. His mouth claimed her body and she moved, writhing in pleasure from his tough as her core tightened with need. Her breath stolen from her chest by his lips and taken inside of him, belonging to him, just like her body felt like it belonged to his touch as he explored it fully. His hands and lips and teeth were everywhere and it was like drowning in the sea; no matter how she writhed, how she clung she couldn't find purchase in herself, couldn't breathe, couldn't think. But it was hot and harsh and felt so good! The moans and noises of need and urgency she heard in her ears she vaguely recognized as hers, and there was his soft encouragement as she clung pulling him closer while he filled her again and again until it was too much for her to bear and--_

"Urrrg!" she muttered gasping for breath and sitting up in her bed. Her whole body was alive and humming with need, her breath coming in short gasps, her face flushed, the flesh of her center swollen and hypersensitive.

:_Damn_!: she thought in frustration.

She couldn't get away from him even in her sleep, and Rikku thought she'd rather die (or have to listen to Seymore sing Bevellian Opera which might be nominally worse than death) before she'd ever admit to having those sorts of dreams about him to the subject of them. A small part of her noted, and thought it might be important that, while she enjoyed Steelwind's company, it hadn't been the famous hero she'd been dreaming about making the beast with two backs with.

She moved to get out of bed, but it was more like an languorous stretch and every part of her was still tight with need and hunger. When her hand accidentally brushed across her stomach, shivers of arousal puckered over her skin and her body tightened even more.

There was no way she could fight like _this_.

:_Guess I'll have to take care of this first_,: she thought with resignation as she plucked up a towel hanging nearby and departed to the ensuite shower.

She closed her eyes and let the flow of water and the fanstasy take her, until she exploded into little bursts of silent gasping pleasure.

She washed up, feeling more relaxed, and banished the last of the dream with thoughts of the fights ahead of her. She was not going to blush or feel awkward around that guy just because of her hormones and some stupid dream. No way. She was Rikku after all. Besides, it would only feed that ego of his and the thing was already quite large enough as it was. Almost as large as she'd imagined his--

:_No! Bad thoughts_!: she scolded herself.

She really needed a boyfriend... or a new machina to build, a new machina would be nice. But nevermind that now, she had some tail to kick.

* * *

The sands were significantly warmer now, past the heat of midday. The young man facing her across from the sands of the fighting circle _looked _young. He still had that wet-behind-the-ears, untested-in-battle look to him. He was trying to hide his nervousness by running small practice manuvers (punches, blocks, dodges) but it looked to her like he was trying to remember what he was supposed to be doing with himself. Had she ever once been like that, where she didn't know quite what she was going to do, or what came next in a fight? Rikku sighed a little to herself, was she getting old?

:_No way_!: she admonished herself.

No she wasn't getting old, and in no way was she ready to settle down and start thinking about kids; she still had so much adventuring to do, so many parties to liven up, so many feinds to hunt, so much treasure to find...

:_I'm too young for kids_!: she thought desperately.

Which was another reason why she had to win this thing, to put her pops in his place firmly on the sidelines in her life; the nerve of him anyway! He barely has time for her and Brother when they're kids but now that she's all grown up he thinks he can just start treating her like a kid! Well, Rikku had plans of her own already and they didn't include settling down at Home.

"Next round, Rikku and Adjed! Fight!" her father called, presiding over the match.

:_Another mechanic_,: she judged.

Rikku powered up a Mug, stealing his three icegems and taking him out of the picture at the same time. He fell to the ground like a rock when she darted past his side, deftly picking his pockets in the process, and spun, dance-like, around his back, nailing him with a soft blow to the back of the head and returning to her starting position.

"Rikku wins!" Cid said, starting to sound a little frustrated. Well good, it served him right.

Another young man took the place of the last after Adjed was carted of the sands by two medics with a stretcher between them.

"Next round, Rikku and Korlath; fight!"

Unlike the last several that Rikku had fought, this one looked like he knew what he was doing. In fact, she thought that she recognized him... yeah, he was an Al Bhed Marine! Marines were the Al Bhed equivalent of the crusaders or the warrior monks of Bevelle; they protected and defended the various explorer teams sent out to the distant corners of Spira to explore old ruins for machina (Rikku had had half a dozen of them on her team when they'd dove down to explore Baaj Temple and found Tidus there instead). They had also patrolled and defended the sands near Home, back when Home had been out in the Sanubia Desert and not near the Bikanel Shores where they'd recently rebuilt it.

Rikku knew for a fact that they were tough; they went through special training to be the best fighters among the Al Bhed, and she was pretty certain that any one of them were certainly able to match a Crusader (or was it Youth League Member now?) or a warrior monk from Bevelle. But were they a match for Rikku?

He started the fight off well, casting haste on himself and then protect. He didn't bother with shell because he already knew that Rikku didn't rely on magic to fight her battles. Rikku darted in and stole three bomb cores from him. In reply Korlath danced a few paces to the side then aimed a flying kick at her head Rikku ducked and rolled out of the way pulling out two items from her belt pouches, a bomb core and an arctic wind mixing them together with the three customary shakes she lobbed it at him on the fly. It was a weak cracking noise indicating the weak snow flurry attack resultant from the mixer. Still, he wasn't protected from it and it did do some damage.

:_Not enough, though_: she thought as she watched him shake off the effects.

She'd have been disappointed if it had been anything less from a member of her peoples best fighting corps. He was up and a her as she recovered from her roll out of his way. Rikku bent backwards out of the way of his first swing, and leaned to the side to avoid his follow-up. She was a little off-balance by the manuvers and fell backwards ungracefully on her rump. Darn her clumsiness! This was not the time for it.

Her opponent tried to turn this to his advantage with a sweeping side-kick designed to knock her out but she flattened herself into the sands and when he tried to stomp down on her, she caught his foot and twisted sending him down. They both rolled apart and recovered.

Rikku decided to go on the offensive. She found her feet and darted around to the side, forcing him to turn to keep her in sight, she feinted another steal. He committed to the counter of trying to grab her arm to twist and throw her down, but she pulled back at the last moment. While his right flank was unguarded she sucker-punched him, jabbing her fist into his stomach and he went down in a heap at her feet.

"Rikku wins!" her father announced.

Deciding that she'd had enough consecutive battles without a break, Rikku signalled a time-out and walked over to her little tent for some shade and a cool drink.

"I stand amazed, Cid's Girl took down an Al Bhed Marine," a cocky voice said from off to one side as Rikku went back to her shaded tent to take a sip of her water while they carted mister marine off to the medics tent.

Despite his irritating demeanor (and Rikku was putting any and all thoughts of certain dreams had while napping firmly out of her mind) Gippal might possibly be one of the only people around her age outside of her family that _wasn't_ trying to marry her, so for that alone she was willing to cut him a break.

"Don't act like its a big surprise," she said, injecting extra confidence into her voice. "I'm the best."

"Right behind me of course," he said.

"Um... no," she said. "I'm definitely better than you too."

"Oh really?" he said, an odd edge to his tone.

Rikku didn't want to have to kick his buttocks as well and risk alienating the _one _Al Bhed male near her age who wasn't interested in marrying her so she quickly amended

"But I will admit that you gave me a bit of a run for my money in the Den of Woe."

"That wasn't me," he said. "It was my evil doppleganger."

"Whatever," she said, putting her arms behind her head. "All I remember is that you had nice things for me to steal from you. So maybe you could win... but I doubt it."

"That sounds like a challenge to me Cid's Girl," he said. "Since we're both here anyway..." he gestured out into the sands.

"You gotta wait your turn," Rikku insisted. "And besides, I think you've forgotten one major point here--"

"And what's that?" he asked, crossing his arms. Rikku grinned and said

"If you win, you gotta marry me. Father's orders. And since Pops is the Leader of the Al Bhed...."

"Right," he said wryly. "I'd be rounded up in the middle of the night by about twenty or thirty angry Marines, thrown into a sack, and chained to the altar if I tried to get out of it."

"Most likely," she agreed.

"Well, good luck with the rest of the rabble," he said waving at her as she walked back out into the sands to face her next challenger.

Rikku missed the speculative look on Gippals face as he wandered off.


	14. Competition

The next four fights went like the first fight of the afternoon had; a bunch of one-hit wonder-boys. Rikku was a little disappointed that there were no more Marines to make her life a bit more interesting, but she supposed that most of them probably had better things to do with their lives (like protect her people) than to fight their Leader's daughter for her hand.

Rikku was glad to see the sun start noticeably westering. Another two hours or so and the first day would be done with.

"Next round, Rikku and Zintu. Fight!" her father announced. He sounded just as enthusiastic for this fighter (who was a complete greenhorn) as he had for the first contestant for that day. Hope sprang eternal, Rikku guessed.

He looked to be a young digger, perhaps even from the Machine Faction. He was armed with a shovel. Was that even a weapon? Oh well.

He went down with a Mug.

:_I'm getting a little thirsty_,: she thought.

That was the fifth one in a row she'd beaten, so she deserved a break. She had a little pavilion set up on her end of the sands for her to rest for a moment in. It was quaintly decorated with tassels and fringes and little yellow banners flapping in the breeze. It had a little rug spread out under the silk roof with a large comfy cushion for her to lounge on. Nearby waited a little serving-machina that chilled her drinks and fulfilled simple requests like "bring me a towel" or "give me ice water."

Rikku went back to her open-sided tent out of the sun to find Gippal lounging away on _her _comfy cushion! What _was _it with this guy and taking over her space?! First her airship and now he's sitting in her resting spot!

"Hey!" Rikku said, looking a little annoyed at his invasion, not to mention that she'd wanted to sit down and he was in her spot. With Gippal it was best to go on the offensive, if she asked politely he'd just take it as an excuse to start messing around with her.

"Excuse me! You're in my seat!"

"I don't see your name on it, Cid's Girl," he replied, not moving an inch and smiling up at her.

"You probably wouldn't recognize it even if it _were _there, seeing as you can't seem to remember my name," she replied. "Now move it, before I make you lose it."

"Now, now. Manners," he admonished, waggling a finger playfully at her.

She mentally debated the emotional satisfaction she might get by nipping at it, and decided against it on the same grounds as her previous decision. Why was it that she came out of every encounter with him feeling exhausted?

"I mean it Gippal," she growled, at least she'd been going for a growl. He didn't look very intimidated, but then, he never did.

"I'll tell you what," he said. "I'm a generous kinda guy, I'll let you share it with me."

He patted his lap.

"You can sit right here," he told her.

"I'll sit on the ground, thanks," she said tartly, picking a spot in the shade of what was supposed to be her little pavilion and ordering a drink from her little machina.

"I can't believe you'd rather sit on the hard, dirty ground than on my warm and comfortable lap," Gippal said, affecting disbelief.

Rikku shoved him so that he toppled over, but he didn't move from her cushion.

"Oh believe it mister," she replied. "I'd rather sit on a cactuar than on your lap."

"Are you two bickering again?" Lulu asked calmly, strolling over from her spot in Cid's spectator tent.

"He started it," she grumbled.

"I offered to let you sit on my lap, isn't that a nice offer?" he said cajolingly.

"No," Rikku replied. "The gentlemanly thing to do would get your butt out of my spot and offer me a seat."

"I'm not a gentleman," he replied.

"Ain't _that _the truth," she said triumphantly.

"But I never claimed to be one in the first place," he added. "Besides that, gentlemen are _boring_. Rikku, you wouldn't like them."

"I think I'd like them better than you," she said. "An annoying prig who keeps invading my turf _and _giving useless advice."

"You love me, admit it," he said, flashing his best charming grin at her.

"I'd forcibly evict you," she said, wrapping her arms around her knees and resting her chin on her kneecaps while she slowly sipped her ice water. "But I've got enough to deal with right now."

"Here, I'll give you a back rub," he offered. "Just take off your shirt."

"No way would I trust you anywhere near my backside, with the shirt or without it," she said.

Her heart wasn't in it though, the heat was making her a little tired so she didn't have as much energy for banter as she usually did.

"Well, I could evict him for you if you'd like," Lulu said. "I seem to have done well enough the last time with making him vacate his seat. Perhaps I should investigate a second career in pest control."

Lulu had sort of an odd sense of humor, sometimes. It wasn't really laugh-out-loud funny, but she seemed to find peoples reactions to her calmly threatening demeanor amusing. Like right then, she seemed to be enjoying the way Gippal's eyes widened a little as he tried to gauge whether the black mage standing before him was joking or serious.

"Your father is motioning that you should join your next contestant out on the sands. You break appears to be over with," Lulu informed her.

"Oh joy," Rikku said, her tone denoting anything but joyfulness.

"Next round; Rikku and Fintaj. Begin!"

Back to the grind.

& & &

Gippal sighed heavily, trying not to feel discouraged, as he watched her casually kick the crap out of some other poor unsuspecting newbie. She looked so _cute _when she was fighting, scratch that, she looked cute at anytime, but there was an ease of motion to the way she darted about the battlefield like a hummingbird that he found especially appealing.

:_What am I doing wrong_?!: he wondered to himself in frustrated bewilderment.

He just couldn't understand it. All the _other _women he'd paired off with, even if those relationships never lasted, had been happy to have him. More than happy, they had been _eager _to take him into their beds. All he'd had to do was pour on the charm, make them relax and laugh a little, and it had proceeded from there. He just couldn't figure out why Rikku was giving him such a hard time.

He'd thought at first that maybe she'd just been shy about touching people, some girls could be like that (ones raised by overly protective fathers certainly) they tended to have overly prudish sensibilities when it came to their bodies. Having dealt with that sort before, Gippal had figured that the only way to get her off her prudery was to get her used to being around him and being held and hugged by him. Well, _that _hadn't worked.

Next he'd tried being extra nice to her, tried getting on her good side by making her laugh a little, but she didn't seem to find him all that funny.

:_Well, most of the women I hang out with are other mechanics_,: Gippal thought to himself. :_And as a rule their sense of humor tends to be a little more earthy, but Rikku never stuck me as the **prudish **sort before.:_

Case in point, that outfit she wore all the time was an exercise in brevity.

She was quite the little mystery, Rikku was. The usual rules just didn't seem to apply to her. She wasn't eager to have him for a lifemate, so he was actually having to put a lot of effort into his pursuit of her. He'd repeatedly tried flirting with her and she'd shot him down at every turn.

:_Come to think of it_,: he thought with a realization that was slow to dawn on him.

:_She actually seemed kind of offended that last time on her airship_.:

He'd just been trying to charm her, get her to see what a good catch he was, make her _interested _in him, but it seemed like his usual strutting and preening was having the _opposite_ effect. Her two Guardian-friends had certainly seemed to object to his behavior.

:_That must be it_,: he thought, brightening up. :_She's been hanging around with too many Yevonites, and their bizarre courtship rituals have rubbed off on her_!:

Yevonites and their senseless prudery and rules! No kissing in public. No touching in public. No intimate touching until after several dates. (Apparently) no sex during the daytime. No testing for physical compatibility (sex) until after a promise of marriage. The list went on and on it seemed. It seemed that it was against the rules to even _imply _any sort of physical desire, and that just made no sense to Gippal. Call if crude, but like it or not, physicality was part of a relationship, best to get it out of the way and see if there was something deeper there to work with.

He was and had been searching for a _real _connection, and he strongly felt that he could have that with Rikku... provided he could ever get her to _be _with him in the first place. Every single thing he tried with regards to her seemed to keep blowing up in his face. Maybe he should have expected that Rikku would be a tough machina to dismantle; after all... look at her legacy already and she was just barely grown. Her father was the first real Leader the Al Bhed had had since the end of the Yevon Wars five hundred years ago, and _he'd_ united all the lost tribes under one banner and built Home with the goal of stopping the Pilgrimages and trying to find another way to defeat Sin. Rikku herself had been one of the few Al Bhed to ever go on a Pilgrimage, and not just _any _Pilgrimage but the Final Pilgrimage; she'd faced and fought Sin herself! Then a year later she turns around and lays the smackdown on Vegnagun's big metal behind, something that was _supposed _to have been Gippal's own great project.

:_Maybe it's hopeless after all_,: Gippal thought glumly. :_How can I ever hope to impress her after all she's managed to do on her own_?:

Perhaps he was just fooling himself, thinking that he had something to offer her that would make it worthwhile for flighty, adventurous Rikku to stay with him. He might joke around with her and call her Cid's little girl and try to act like he was so much cooler and wiser than her, but that was mostly because he was intimidated by all she'd managed to achieve. He was still at a loss as to what might entice Rikku into giving up her roaming for a while and settling in with him. Maybe he was coming at this from the wrong angle.

She wasn't impressed by him. Even in his area of strength, machina building, she was no slouch herself. He'd tried to amaze her with his expertise and knowledge and she'd shrugged off his advise and went her own way and _still _got great results (the lady had built her own airship form the engine core out!). Being a businessman which a lucrative and expandng business didn't seem to impress her either, Rikku wasn't the type to be impressed by money. With the way she was taking these guys out without barely having to blink, Gippal would have to do some serious practicing if he was ever going to reach her level of expertise in the area of fiend-slaying. In fact, she'd just fought a living legend among the Al Bhed and won, and if their converstaion on the airship was to be believed she'd even been holding _back_!

:_And speaking of living legends_...: Gippal thought, sinking a little further into agonized depression.

That Gelnin Steelwind looked like he was going to be tough competition. Gippal had never been shown up quite so thoroughly in his life before. Usually when he was competing with another guy over a girl all the advantages were on Gippals end; he was (reasonably) wealthy, successful, considered to be one of the three major leaders in the new world order, handsome, charming and witty, he was considered to be quite the catch. He hadn't realized until he had activly started to pursue Rikku, just how much he had relied on his status and reputation to get his foot in the door (so to speak). Now, not only was he pursuing a woman who, in many ways might actually be out of his league, but he had competion in the form of an older, stronger, possibly even more confident man.

:_I'll bet he even has a lot in common with Rikku too_!: Gippal thought, trying not to let his thoughts be tinged with worry.

After all, the man was a fighter of great reknown (even if he was old enough to be her father). Rikku herself was definitely no slouch in the arena.

:_Yeah I'll bet they'd have a great life together_,: Gippal muttered sullenly in the privacy of his own mind. :_The two of them, going every where on her airship. He'd let her be just a flighty and fun as she wants to be, probably find treasure too.:_

And Hadn't Paine said something about Rikku having once had a huge crush on a man much older than she during that Pilgrimage she had went on? Since she very much doubted that it was Khimari, the only other likely candidate was that guy in the red coat who had saved Gippals own skin ot in the desert just before the Guado raid on Home. Steelwind probably reminded her of her first crush. Worse and worse. Maybe he should just give up...

Gippal took another long look at her fighting out on the sands, the sunlight shining off her beautiful blonde hair, her lithe form practically dancing as she took down some other hapless victim. He sighed longingly. He couldn't give up on her, not when he was so sure she was the one! There had to be a way, some way to get her to really notice him. Everything else he'd tried hadn't worked. Maybe he should try going to one of her Yevonite friends and putting aside his pride and asking what would make her interested in him. He was getting desperate, with a woman like Rikku on the line and competition like the legendary Steelwind, if he didn't move soon he'd loose his window of opportunity.

* * *

**Last update you'll probably see for a while. I'd like to thank _Wakka_ for sending me the reveiw about Gippal, it actually helped out a lot. A friend of mine told me that one of the major reasons that people get writers block is that they write a scene where thier characters do things that are out of character for them and either that itself is the the block or they didn't give a reason why the chara acted that way. So, having it pointed out to me helped me figure out what it was that had been bugging me for months on end, I've had this thing collecting dust on my harddrive for probably about a year or so all because I was stuck at a point and couldn't move on, you were spot on to point out that my characterization must have been subconsciously bugging me. I couldn't figure it out, so thanks again!**


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